Benchmarking WASH Trajectories in Africa: A Comparative Assessment of Six Country Archetypes (2000–2022)

This dataset and analytical report are grounded in hydrological constraints shaping long-term water service trajectories. They provide a comparative assessment of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) trajectories across six African countries—Rwanda, Senegal, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, and Madagascar—over the 2000–2022 period. Using harmonized WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) indicators, World Bank World Development Indicators (WDI) data, and UN DESA population estimates, the analysis constructs a coherent cross-country benchmark to examine progress, gaps, rural–urban disparities, and structural constraints relevant to SDG 6 alignment.

The accompanying report synthesizes long-term WASH trends, annual progress rates, sanitation bottlenecks, rural–urban disparities, and differences in performance relative to income levels, interpreted in light of persistent hydro-environmental constraints and system inertia. A simple costing model provides indicative investment requirements for closing rural basic water gaps in 2022. Nine figures document the comparative context, trends, progress rates, SDG trajectory gaps, structural drivers, and a summary quadrant combining progress and residual deficits.

Key findings indicate that all six countries improved WASH access over 2000–2022, but progress rates remain insufficient to meet SDG 6 by 2030; sanitation lags structurally behind drinking water; rural areas account for the dominant share of national deficits; income levels do not consistently predict performance; Madagascar and Côte d’Ivoire exhibit the most severe low-progress/high-gap configurations; and Rwanda displays an atypical rural sanitation trajectory exceeding urban levels.

This repository includes the full analytical report (PDF), the harmonized dataset used in the analysis (CSV), and high-resolution versions of all nine figures (PNG). The materials are intended to support further research, peer review, sector diagnostics, and policy discussion on WASH progress and SDG 6 in Africa.