Publication: Water Supply and Sanitation Policies, Institutions, and Regulation: Adapting to a Changing World - Synthesis Report
Loading...
Date
2022-08
ISSN
Published
2022-08
Editor(s)
Abstract
Policies, institutions, and regulation (PIR) are essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to water and sanitation, but need a considerable boost to be effective. A rich body of analytical work has been developed to support this idea. Nevertheless, this report argues that the mainstreaming and implementation of PIR into concrete reforms, investment programs and infrastructure is still sporadic at best. At the same time, the stakes for getting PIR right are higher than ever. PIR needs to be strengthened, adjusted, and scaled up to meet the needs of a changing world. The World Bank has reviewed the experience of various countries with PIR and has documented its insights in a new report. This report has two main objectives. The first is to reflect on the body of PIR knowledge and experiences accumulated globally and in selected countries to refine the PIR concept based on lessons learned. The second is to advocate for greater action on PIR by policy makers, development partners, international financial institutions, and civil society by using projects and investments as implementation vehicles. A companion piece to this report, the PIR Framework Tool, provides more detailed guidance on undertaking policy dialogue on PIR, identifying reform options, and applying PIR concretely in practice.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Muzenda, Dambudzo; Sadik, Norhan; Boex,Jamie; Makino,Midori; Heymans, Chris; Saltiel, Gustavo; Misra, Smita. 2022. Water Supply and Sanitation Policies, Institutions, and Regulation: Adapting to a Changing World - Synthesis Report. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37922 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Water Supply and Sanitation Policies, Institutions, and Regulation(Washington, DC, 2022-08)Policies, institutions, and regulation (PIR) are essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to water and sanitation, but need a considerable boost to be effective. A rich body of analytical work has been developed to support this idea. Nevertheless, this report argues that the mainstreaming and implementation of PIR into concrete reforms, investment programs and infrastructure is still sporadic at best. At the same time, the stakes for getting PIR right are higher than ever. PIR needs to be strengthened, adjusted, and scaled up to meet the needs of a changing world. The World Bank has reviewed the experience of various countries with PIR and has documented its insights in a new report. This report has two mainobjectives. The first is to reflect on the body of PIR knowledge and experiences accumulated globally and in selected countries to refine the PIR concept based on lessons learned. The second is to advocate for greater action on PIR by policy makers, development partners, international financial institutions, and civil society by using projects and investments as implementation vehicles. A companion piece to this report, the PIR Framework Tool, provides more detailed guidance on undertaking policy dialogue on PIR, identifying reform options, and applying PIR concretely in practice.Publication Regulation of Water Supply and Sanitation in Bank Client Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-11)This discussion paper supplements the 2018 World Bank Global Study on Aligning Institutions and Incentives for Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS), which promotes holistic approaches in shaping policies, institutions, and regulation. The paper examines how lower-, lower-middle-, and middle-income countries (LMICs) could implement more effective regulation to deliver sustainable WSS outcomes by considering political, legal, and institutional realities. Rather than importing “best practice” models, experience has emphasized the importance of developing “best fit” regulatory frameworks aligned with policy and institutional frameworks of LMICs. To this end, this discussion paper provides an overview of three regulatory aspects—objectives, forms, and functions—to support practitioners as they consider their own regulatory reform options. It discusses the objectives of water sector regulation in LMICs, types of regulatory arrangements and structures that are being used in LMICs, and instruments and methods that regulators in LMICs use to implement their mandated functions and ends with suggestions on where the WSS community goes from here to better understand the preconditions for effective regulation. This paper does not offer definitive conclusions but rather provides suggestions on the way forward through a phased approach to regulatory reform. Importantly, it sheds light on issues that warrant further investigation to determine the future of WSS regulation in LMICs.Publication Aligning Institutions and Incentives for Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation Services(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-05)The objective of this study is to analyze how integrated policy, institutional, and regulatory interventions (institutional interventions in brief) can help align incentives for more sustainable water supply and sanitation (WSS) service delivery. The context for the study is the enhanced global concern about the sustainability of attempts to increase access to, and improve the quality of, WSS services, as exemplified in the sustainable development goals. Aligning institutional interventions refers to harmonization among the objectives for the sector, agreed principles established through political and social processes, and the organizations and mechanisms that implement actions based on such objectives and principles. This report focuses on the formal policy, institutional, and regulatory interventions available to and or prevalent in the water sector, recognizing the critical importance of the informal conventions that will be key factors in the success of any incentive regime. Previous global initiatives offered a range of promising technical solutions that often proved to be unsustainable. New thinking that draws not only infrastructure economics but also on the understanding of political, behavioral, and institutional economics is needed. This new thinking must be grounded within the differing contextual realities of countries globally and in lessons learned from what has or has not worked with regards to achieving specific objectives.Publication Incentives for Improving Water Supply and Sanitation Service Delivery(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-05-14)Since 2016, the World Bank’s Water and Governance Global Practices have been implementing the Policy, Institutional and Regulatory (PIR) Incentives Initiative to gain deeper insight into the dynamics between water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector incentive mechanisms. PIR is a global framework for understanding factors that can contribute to positive sector outcomes at the country level. This knowledge brief uses a PIR framework to provide a snapshot of the experiences of five countries in South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. The brief showcases the wide variety of incentives created by governments to successfully motivate people (as individuals or as part of an institution) to do their part in an integrated PIR system and how a lack of such integration may produce perverse incentives that prohibit the achievement of sector goals. Governments looking to strengthen the WSS sector should, therefore, take a holistic approach to sector reform and one that seeks to align PIR incentives through integrated interventions. This alignment includes harmonization between sector objectives, rules of the game, and mechanisms for implementation. Of critical importance is the financial and human resource capacity of sector institutions. Countries in South America need to move beyond the technical solutions that enabled them to achieve the MDGs and in the process carefully consider the drivers for reform and the best fit for the prevailing institutional context.Publication Troubled Tariffs(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-12-02)Tariffs are essential but not the only pathway to cost recovery, addressing affordability, and managing water conservation. To maximize their potential, they must be well designed, complemented by appropriate instruments, adequately regulated, and understood by customers. This report builds upon that one, and provides policy makers with the information needed to design better tariffs to further the economic efficiency, affordability, and environmental sustainability of water supply services. Through a layered and comprehensive analysis of the most prevalent tariff structures, it provides policy makers with specific guidance on pricing water supply services in response to the sector’s often-competing goals. This document comprises a synthesis of fifteen unique research papers that, combined, articulate a step-by-step thought process for designing effective tariffs with a view to achieving sustainable development goal (SDG) 6.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Empowerment in Practice : From Analysis to Implementation(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006)This book represents an effort to present an easily accessible framework to readers, especially those for whom empowerment remains a puzzling development concern, conceptually and in application. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 explains how the empowerment framework can be used for understanding, measuring, monitoring, and operationalizing empowerment policy and practice. Part 2 presents summaries of each of the five country studies, using them to discuss how the empowerment framework can be applied in very different country and sector contexts and what lessons can be learned from these test cases. While this book can offer only a limited empirical basis for the positive association between empowerment and development outcomes, it does add to the body of work supporting the existence of such a relationship. Perhaps more importantly, it also provides a framework for future research to test the association and to prioritize practical interventions seeking to empower individuals and groups.Publication Impact Evaluation in Practice, Second Edition(Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank, 2016-09-13)The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.Publication World Development Report 1984(New York: Oxford University Press, 1984)Long-term needs and sustained effort are underlying themes in this year's report. As with most of its predecessors, it is divided into two parts. The first looks at economic performance, past and prospective. The second part is this year devoted to population - the causes and consequences of rapid population growth, its link to development, why it has slowed down in some developing countries. The two parts mirror each other: economic policy and performance in the next decade will matter for population growth in the developing countries for several decades beyond. Population policy and change in the rest of this century will set the terms for the whole of development strategy in the next. In both cases, policy changes will not yield immediate benefits, but delay will reduce the room for maneuver that policy makers will have in years to come.Publication World Development Report 2004(World Bank, 2003)Too often, services fail poor people in access, in quality, and in affordability. But the fact that there are striking examples where basic services such as water, sanitation, health, education, and electricity do work for poor people means that governments and citizens can do a better job of providing them. Learning from success and understanding the sources of failure, this year’s World Development Report, argues that services can be improved by putting poor people at the center of service provision. How? By enabling the poor to monitor and discipline service providers, by amplifying their voice in policymaking, and by strengthening the incentives for providers to serve the poor. Freedom from illness and freedom from illiteracy are two of the most important ways poor people can escape from poverty. To achieve these goals, economic growth and financial resources are of course necessary, but they are not enough. The World Development Report provides a practical framework for making the services that contribute to human development work for poor people. With this framework, citizens, governments, and donors can take action and accelerate progress toward the common objective of poverty reduction, as specified in the Millennium Development Goals.Publication Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-05)Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The digital sector has become a powerhouse of innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Value added in the IT services sector grew at 8 percent annually during 2000–22, nearly twice as fast as the global economy. Employment growth in IT services reached 7 percent annually, six times higher than total employment growth. The diffusion and adoption of digital technologies are just as critical as their invention. Digital uptake has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.5 billion new internet users added from 2018 to 2022. The share of firms investing in digital solutions around the world has more than doubled from 2020 to 2022. Low-income countries, vulnerable populations, and small firms, however, have been falling behind, while transformative digital innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) have been accelerating in higher-income countries. Although more than 90 percent of the population in high-income countries was online in 2022, only one in four people in low-income countries used the internet, and the speed of their connection was typically only a small fraction of that in wealthier countries. As businesses in technologically advanced countries integrate generative AI into their products and services, less than half of the businesses in many low- and middle-income countries have an internet connection. The growing digital divide is exacerbating the poverty and productivity gaps between richer and poorer economies. The Digital Progress and Trends Report series will track global digitalization progress and highlight policy trends, debates, and implications for low- and middle-income countries. The series adds to the global efforts to study the progress and trends of digitalization in two main ways: · By compiling, curating, and analyzing data from diverse sources to present a comprehensive picture of digitalization in low- and middle-income countries, including in-depth analyses on understudied topics. · By developing insights on policy opportunities, challenges, and debates and reflecting the perspectives of various stakeholders and the World Bank’s operational experiences. This report, the first in the series, aims to inform evidence-based policy making and motivate action among internal and external audiences and stakeholders. The report will bring global attention to high-performing countries that have valuable experience to share as well as to areas where efforts will need to be redoubled.