Panama: Strengthening equity in access to safe drinking water and sanitation by empowering citizens and excluded indigenous groups in rural areas

Ninety-one per cent of the indigenous population of Panama's Ngöbe-Buglé Region suffers from extreme poverty. Their dispersion, mobility and location in remote and inaccessible areas raise the cost of traditional sanitation solutions, limiting investment and private participation.

The joint programme uses an intercultural and gender-based approach to promote equity by developing water resource management capacities and extending development opportunities in health and education for the populations and their community organizations in the four districts of the Ngöbe-Buglé Region.

In addition, national counterpart organizations are enhancing both their central and local institutional capacities to provide efficient basic services to communities suffering from extreme poverty. The overall aim of the programme is to empower rural and indigenous populations to manage their own water resources and thus improve the quality of, and access to, public water and sanitation services.