This note presents tools that can help make service providers more accountable to the people they serve. The voice of users is often muted in water utilities. One consequence is that utilities do not take account of users' priorities and preferences. The utility, in turn, loses the trust and...

Despite widespread consensus on the importance of meeting the basic human rights of all people for safe water and adequate sanitation, the debate on the role of the private sector is loud, and at times destructive. In South Africa the gross inequalities inherited with the end of apartheid in...

This report encapsulates the findings from a study commissioned by the African Development Bank in 2013, and identifies key constraints to managing and developing water resources in Africa's transboundary basins in order to support regional integration. It also provides some guidance on how to...

All countries, especially developing countries with limited financial resources, face difficult decisions in prioritizing public funds for investment projects in order to achieve strategic public goals in the face of multiple demands. Effective investment often requires coordination between...

This paper served as a background paper to the European Report on Development 2011/2012: Confronting scarcity: Managing water, energy and land for inclusive and sustainable growth. The European Report on Development was prepared by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in partnership with the...

Water resource management is poorly understood and defined since the characteristics of water resources and their use are locally specific and differ widely from place to place. Beyond that, water as a renewable natural resource does not fall into conventional analytical paradigms. It is an...