New approaches to water sector governance

Money is not the only obstacle to achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the number of people without safe water. There is a relationship between poor governance and a country’s lack of water services. Unless they address governance issues, many countries will not achieve the water MDG, even with more funding.

A paper from the Overseas Development Institute, in the UK, offers guidance to the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) on how to improve its approach to governance in water services.

Key mistakes and challenges for the countries that are not on track to meet the water MDG are:

• failure by governments, donors and non-governmental organisations to coordinate water sector interventions
• implementation of interventions without paying sufficient attention to political realities
• poor accountability and transparency systems: water sector professionals have little interest in interacting with poor communities
• water priorities in policies such as Poverty Reduction Strategies are not reflected in budgets
• civil society is unable to demand equitable service delivery
• decentralisation is being promoted but lower levels of government are being given responsibility – but not the resources – for water service delivery.

Drawing on DFID thinking, terminology and approaches, the authors argue that the development of water services needs to be more closely aligned with governance in other sectors. It proposes ways to adapt and apply DFID’s ‘Capability, Accountability and Responsiveness’ (CAR) framework to water programme design. The CAR framework assesses and monitors the various dimensions of governance that lead to state capability, accountability and responsiveness and provides a basis for identifying what governance improvements are needed.

When used with a Sector Governance Assessment methodology in the water sector, the CAR framework can identify the attributes sought, present strengths and weaknesses, and suggest indicators that can be developed to measure progress.

It is also important for programme planners to identify and understand ‘drivers of change’ (DOCs) and identify where power lies. The DOC approach highlights the importance of understanding the underlying political systems and the mechanisms of pro-poor change. It focuses attention on formal and informal rules, power structures, vested interests and incentives.

In recent years DOCs have been assessed in over 20 countries DFID focuses on. Identifying drivers of change permits international donor agencies like DFID to join local actors to put pressure on elites to introduce pro-poor services and improve accountability.

DOC and power analysis can be challenging to staff of agencies like DFID because it reveals how little they really know about how to promote progressive and sustainable change, and often highlights the limits of donor intervention.

The authors advise DFID to:

• test the CAR/DOC approach to the water sector in relevant country programmes
• reflect on information and learning from outside the water sector
• improve dialogue with and identify opportunities to collaborate with those promoting governance reforms in other sectors
• train staff, especially in country offices, on how to use power and DOC analyses and provide them with incentives to adopt them
• define how DFID intends to coordinate and harmonise work with other partners – especially with how to jointly approach the difficult issue of sector politics, which like corruption, is difficult in many country contexts.

Source(s):
‘Rethinking governance in water services’, Overseas Development Institute, Working Paper 284, by Janelle Plummer and Tom Slaymaker, ODI Working Paper 284, October 2007 (PDF) Full document.

Funded by: UK Department for International Development (DFID)

id21 Research Highlight: 14 December 2008

Further Information:
Tom Slaymaker
Water Policy Programme
Overseas Development Institute
111 Westminster Bridge Road
London, SE7 1JD
UK

Tel: +44 20 79220300
Fax: +44 20 79220399
Contact the contributor: t.slaymaker@odi.org.uk

Water Policy Programme, Overseas Development Institute, London, UK

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