This publication discusses the challenges faced in accelerating access to improved water and sanitation services beyond the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets. It examines the private sector provision of piped water services and on-site sanitation services in rural areas and small towns,...

"This paper summarizes the key findings and conclusions of a literature review of small-scale private service providers (SPSPs) of water supply and electricity conducted over a six-month period in 2003. It draws on more than 400 documents-including journals, articles, reports, case studies and...

Before the current economic crisis hit the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region in 2008, energy security was a major source of concern in Central and Eastern Europe and in many of the economies in the former Soviet Union. Energy importers were experiencing shortages leading to periodic brownouts...

This paper develops a number of approaches to power sector planning that respond to the uncertainties that Afghanistan faces. It aims to provide an alternative to the "predict then act" approach to planning, which will allow more robust decision making. The paper is divided into two parts: the...

It is very likely that an energy crunch could hit several countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) in the next five or six years. Before the financial crisis of 2008, several electricity importing countries in the region had begun to experience difficulties with supply; however, the...

In the 1990s, Zimbabwe's economic growth began to slow following a balance of payments crisis and repeated droughts. By the late 1990s Zimbabwe's economy was in serious trouble driven by economic mismanagement, political violence, and the wider impact of the land reform program on food...