Localizing Sustainable Development Goal 6: An Assessment of Equitable Access to Sanitation in a Brazilian Metropolitan Region

In order for the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda to be achieved, it is essential to “localize” the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), since it is only at the local level that it is possible to move towards their effective implementation. This article seeks to contribute to the development of evaluation and monitoring strategies for target 6.2 at the local level, adapting the official SDG indicator 6.2.1a and the international criteria established by the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)) at the municipal scale. Using the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Region (RMBH) as a case study, a series of methodological procedures is proposed to assess and monitor equitable access to sanitation services. Inequalities in access to services between different population subgroups and between the municipalities that make up the RMBH are explored in different ways, including the evaluation of intersecting forms of inequality, the mapping of a synthetic index of inequality based on multiple criteria and the projection of the time needed to achieve universal access to services according to international criteria. The procedures applied demonstrated the existence of significant inequalities among the municipalities and population subgroups of the RMBH, which are not evident in the analysis of the aggregated data by municipality.