The devil is in the detail – an analysis of the DBSA’s ‘Access to Sanitation’ indicator

Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The devil is in the detail – an analysis of the DBSA’s ‘Access to Sanitation’ indicator
 
Creator Ingle, M. K.
 
Subject Public Administration; Development Studies; Environmental Studies; Statistics Indicators; sanitation; DBSA; sanitation backlog; pit toilets; flush toilets
Description When using indicator values to measure change over an interval of time, the general understanding of the factor being analysed may have been modified during the period under review. Altered definitions of ‘urban’, or ‘poverty’, provide common instances of this phenomenon. This article outlines a similar situation with respect to the ‘access to sanitation’ indicator as it features in the Development Bank of Southern Africa’s series of Development Reports. These publications are often referred to as a ready source of useful information. It is shown how an altered understanding of what constituted ‘sanitation’ in South Africa came to influence the relevant indicator values. This change, if not taken into account, could result in planning calculations yielding invalid conclusions. The article deals with the casual use of ready-to-hand indicators by non- specialist practitioners, and about how easy it is to be misled on occasion.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2009-04-04
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/td.v5i2.136
 
Source The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa; Vol 5, No 2 (2009); 13 pages 2415-2005 1817-4434
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://td-sa.net/index.php/td/article/view/136/266
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2009 M. K. Ingle https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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