In 2004, a field review commissioned by the World Bank found that half of the piped rural water supply systems in Rwanda were nonfunctional due to poor management and poor cost recovery. In response, the government shifted to a public-private partnership (PPP) management model. As of 2010, 235...

This smart lesson explains how donor funds have been used to leverage domestic market finance and equity for investment in small piped water infrastructure in the peri-urban and rural areas of Kenya. Given the immense pressure on government and donor resources to achieve the Millennium...

More than two-thirds of the water suppliers in Cambodia are unlicensed, unregulated private businesses that often provide untreated water at substandard quality. One of the foremost challenges in converting informal water suppliers in Cambodia to formal, licensed suppliers is capacity building....

In 2009 the Water and Sanitation Program Africa began working with 10 local governments to test the effectiveness of marketing as a method to prompt households in rural Tanzania to invest in improving their sanitation facilities. This initiative carried out with local and national governments,...

Small water utilities with fewer than 5,000 connections comprise over 90 percent of the known network systems in urban areas in the Philippines. By developing their capacity to improve their performance, they have more chances of being creditworthy and bankable so that they can finance...

India's crop insurance program is the world's largest with 25 million farmers insured. Yet 85 million farmer households are not covered. Issues in design, particularly related to delays in claims settlements, explain the low coverage. To address these problems, the World Bank provided actuarial...

Communities demand that community-based water provider organizations (CBOs) be more professional in their delivery of water and provide the level of service they expect. This demand may be a challenge, not only in terms of the internal capacity of the CBO but also in terms of the uncertainty as...

No program or product can be expected to go on forever, but the timing and manner in which International Finance Corporation (IFC) executes an exit can make a tremendous difference to clients, staff, and the Corporation's reputation. This smart lesson draws on the experience of the IFC against...

Given a choice, poor people in Bangladesh will like to be treated the same as any other consumers who go to the market, assess all the options, and then make their purchases either with a lump-sum payment or through an installment plan. Even with an interest component, installment buying gives...

Launched in 2007, the Creating Sanitation Markets (CSM) initiative is a multi stakeholder effort led by the World Bank's water and sanitation program to explore new alternatives for increasing access to quality household sanitation in Peru. The approach is premised on a market-based system for...