NGOs and the Effect of Investments in the Water and Sanitation Sector (WSS) in Developing Countries

Recent research emphasizes the ability of NGOs to positively impact human rights practices and shows that ‘naming and shaming’ is a popular strategy of INGOs and media to enforce international norms. To this point, however, we know little about how different non-state actors (i.e. NGOs and firms) interact with each other and their effects on basic human rights. While in 2010, the United Nations explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation, it is critical to inquire about the role NGOs play in improving access to water and sanitation in developing countries. This paper seeks to analyze how ‘naming and shaming’ by environmental NGOs encourages firms to invest in the water and sanitation sector in developing countries. I argue that the efficiency of private investments is mediated by the presence of NGOs, which I empirically test using cross-sectional data on access to water and sanitation from developing countries.