The challenges of equitable access to water and sanitation require actions at the national and local levels. However, authorities may lack the required capacity, knowledge and tools to assess the situation and elaborate a comprehensive action plan, which may include the adoption of legislative and economic measures to improve the situation. The low capacity is caused by such factors as the absence of disaggregated data, weak coordination between relevant stakeholders, the lack of mechanisms to support affordability of services and inadequacy of national policies and complementarities between them.The capacity of national and local governments to address specific challenges of small-scale water supply and sanitation systems in their development policies is also generally low. This is caused by commonly weak regulations, standards and management arrangements for proper operation of small-scale systems. There is also inadequate technical knowledge on safe and efficient management of small-scale systems at the national and local levels. The project will contribute to reducing inequities in access to drinking water and sanitation, especially in rural areas, mostly supplied by small-scale systems. This will be achieved through strengthening capacities of national governments to develop policies on equitable access to water and sanitation and address specific challenges of small-scale water supply and sanitation systems in national and local development policies. To this end, the project will provide capacity-development activities at the national, sub regional and regional levels. The strengthened capacity of national and local governments will also lead to the improved implementation of the Protocol on Water and Health in the region.