The information collected through this analysis should also include the various forms of support that the poor can access. For instance, NGOs may have established effective credit and savings groups, which would form useful models for poor communities. Rag-pickers may have organised themselves into cooperatives and created effective micro-enterprises for tertiary-level solid waste removal. Water-sellers may have successfully scaled up their deliveries to new peri-urban areas. The municipality may have developed effective community liaison; health workers may have achieved some success with mother and child clinics.
The research should also identify the gaps in current supply and find out how they are filled by the poor. How do the poor get their water when there is no network supply, or when standpipes are broken? How do women and children find safe and private spaces to wash and defecate? Where do poor households dump their rubbish, and what are the impacts (on, for example, health)? Knowledge about gaps and supply mechanisms is crucial to an understanding of the impacts of change, and the potential roles of communities, NGOs and the private sector. They provide further details of the context, the people and how they manage. Understanding existing access arrangements is often crucial to ensure that the partnership arrangement does not produce unintended impacts and to initiate solutions that mitigate negative impacts.