Pumps, Pipes and Promises

Costs, Finances and Accountability for Sustainable WASH Services

Preliminary Synthesis

IRC Symposium 2010 Pumps, Pipes and Promises 16-18 November, The Hague

broken

!

Broken promises ….

•Broken promises about ... Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services• Not delivered • Not sustainable• Not equitable

Costs•LCCA – for service provision – is the way forward•Cost for service provided is as (more?) important

than cost for technology•Data is scattered and difficult to find (easiest for

water, hardest for hygiene)• Capital Maintenance and Direct Support Costs

are the least understood (and most important!)• Direct (technical) Support is very important and

relatively expensive

Costs•Totaling and annualizing per-capita costs is useful (essential?!) – Totex?!•Totex for basic rural water supplies seems to lie in the range 4-40US$/person/year – probably realistically not less than 20US$/person/year• And this still doesn’t guarantee an acceptable service!• Totex for Sanitation and Hygiene ……. ??

Finance• Finance needs to take account of, and budget for, full lifecycle costs • ALL finance comes from .... Taxes, Tariffs or Transfers• The challenge is to decide which pays for what!• Globally - public finance is key – in LDCs aid is essential

• Services cannot be internally sustainable – at the level of the system • CapManEx cannot be internally financed – alternative financing

mechanisms are essential - Insurance? Mutualisation? Tax?• Little agreement on:•Who should finance, what, and at what institutional level (Local)

Government? Users? Private sector (probably not!), Donors (not sustainable)

Accountability• Agreement that accountability, transparency, integrity are all essential!• Transparency (seems to) lead to improved services• Corruption is everywhere! – it is corrosive, expensive, destructive – it

must be tackled head on!• Tools exist to tackle it – with promising results• Be proactive and be preventative – corruption is about systems as

much as (more than?!) morals• Some solutions exist inside sector – some are wider (democracy,

accountability, rule of law etc.)• Sector actors DO have a role to play

•Without transparency, and accountability to improved access to (cost) information is unlikely to lead to improved outcomes

Accountability•The time to strengthen accountability etc. is at the start of institutional reform (e.g SWAp, decentralisation etc.)

Where we (perhaps) need more work•Understanding the relative importance – and relationships between – corruption, poor management, poor governance, lack of access to information etc.

Cross-cutting agreements•Costs are important – but not everything! •Knowing the costs of different service levels – and

matching these with different financing streams is the first step to achieving sustainability•But without good (enough) governance, good

(enough) management – progress will not happen•Accessible information is essential to improved

good service delivery – and it goes beyond costs!

•Monitor (and hold accountable) on the service provided – not just the hardware built•Cost effectiveness in the WASH sector may be best measured in terms of service delivered•Transparency (freedom of information) is essential: of service levels to be delivered (and related costs and expectations) of financing

Transparency

Accountability

Quality of service

Availability of (cost)

information

Sufficient financing

More work needed …•What ARE the models for financing post

construction costs? How DO we finance CapManEx and Direct Support Costs•What IS the magnitude of REQUIRED

(normative) post-construction elements of cost?• Which financing source should pay for what

cost element?•Who should pay for improved access to

information?!

•Decentralisation is a broad political process. The question(s) are HOW can decentralised WASH services be financed and made to work? •Who does (and spends) what – at what

institutional levels – fulfilling what functions?• Where does accountability lie in decentralised

service delivery – who monitors who?•These are questions that must be asked and answered by countries

Next steps?

• Answer all the above questions!! •Communicate, communicate, communicate!•Develop and document approaches AND tools for:• Life cycle costing• Monitoring costs and service delivery• Accountability• ……