Abstract:
Alone, the public sector cannot help nations achieve Sustainable Development
Goal 6 target by 2030 due to financial constraints. Studies indicate that shifting
water financing policies creates unequal social and economic impacts across
different regions and timeframes. These disparities stem from the uneven natural
distribution of water and the ongoing competition between different sectors for
limited resources. Complex, ostensibly, synergistic public-private partnerships in
water financing distends and intersperse with geopolitical dynamics disenfranchising
fragile livelihoods in least developed nations with contrasting patterns for
the developed world. A caveat looms in synthesizing, developing, decoding and
integrating fiscal policies to incentivise multifaceted stakeholder financing, participation
and uptake and mainstreaming holistic water and sanitation projects for
sustainable livelihoods. This contemporary systematic and bibliometric literature
review used a derivate SPAR-4-SLR model to evaluate the contribution of financial
paradigms and fiscal policies toward the attainment of SDG 6 targets by 2030
for Africa, Asia, and South and North America. Extensive research highlights a
persistent financing gap in the water and sanitation sectors, which fundamentally
aligns with global patterns of systemic poverty. While developed nations have
successfully leveraged functional public-private partnerships to address these
shortfalls, lower-income regions remain trapped by a lack of investment capital.
Future research imperatives delegate towards evaluating the stochastic impacts
of capital markets, in tandem with tailored water market instruments buttressed
by donor funding and innovative localized funding mechanisms to achieve SDG
6 by 2030.
