Preface and Introduction

The Woodrow Wilson Center’s Navigating Peace Initiative, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, brings together experts and practitioners to reframe stale debates and generate fresh thinking on critical water problems. The papers collected here seek to shed light on the challenges of improving access to safe water and sanitation, as well as the possibilities afforded by innovation and cooperation. The initiative thus hopes to contribute to the ongoing discussion by examining alternatives to large-scale infrastructure projects in the water and sanitation sectors, including NGO and community-based water and sanitation efforts, and exploring how lessons learned from small-scale projects can be effectively communicated worldwide.