A/HRC/24/44 and contributes to greater predictability and long-term planning. This has clear benefits for the sustainability of water and sanitation systems. 70. Transparency cannot be achieved by simply making budgets publicly available, but not making the data accessible. In order for members of affected communities and civil society to work together with governments to find workable long-term solutions that promote sustainability, there is also a need for education with respect to understanding budgets and budgetary processes, as well as true participation by affected communities in the decision-making processes. 71. The Social Justice Coalition in Cape Town provides an example of how budgeting in the water and sanitation sectors that incorporates transparency, education and participation can result in gains in sustainability and better implementation of the rights to water and sanitation.70 C. Effective planning towards people-centred service delivery: addressing inequalities and discrimination 72. Planning processes that accord sufficient priority to the rights to water and sanitation help ensure sustainable results and strengthen accountability. A clearly articulated vision can serve as a firm foundation for prioritizing funding to the sector, and inspire confidence about spending. Such planning must target the elimination of inequalities: centring national planning in the water and sanitation sectors around the obligation of non-discrimination helps Governments ensure not only that the most marginalized people are able to access services, but also that such access is maintained in a sustainable manner. 73. One mechanism for achieving this is to establish social protection floors. Adequate planning must ensure that basic social security guarantees exist to enable access to essential social services. Social protection floors need to be a priority in periods of economic and financial growth and sustained in times of crisis. At the same time, when economic and financial crises strike, special measures to protect the most vulnerable must be set in place. 74. One way to minimize reliance on social protection floors during times of crisis is to ensure that inequalities are dealt with during times of growth as a matter of priority, ensuring that the sustainability of existing services is not an excuse to continue prioritizing provision to middle-class, urban formal residential areas to the detriment of extending coverage to informal settlements, remote or rural areas, and ensuring that existing gaps between the haves and have-nots are eliminated. 75. In India, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board connected more than 5 per cent of the city’s informal settlements to the network between 2000 and 2005. This initiative not only aimed at providing safe water for people living in informal settlements who were previously excluded from the formal network, but also reduced non-revenue water and decreased residents’ dependency on free water through public taps or illegal connections. Even though challenges remain, connection costs and tariffs were adjusted to ensure affordability, leading to an increase in the revenue base and sustainability.71 70 71 See Neil Overy, “The Social Justice Coalition and access to basic sanitation in informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa”, International Budget Partnership study No. 11, March 2013. See “Connecting the slums. a utility’s pro-poor approach in Bangalore”, Water and Sanitation Program Field Note, February 2006, p. 2. Available from https://www.wsp.org/sites/wsp.org/files/publications/319200735514_Connectingtheslums.pdf. 19