Donors supporting countries affected by fragility conflict and violence face a difficult trade-off. Should they deliver urgently needed water supply infrastructure through non-state actors or build the country institutions that deliver water supply? This report confirms that the current response...

The choice made early in the post-conflict transition by the international community to directly fund WASH service delivery through non-state actors rather than through the Liberian government undermined both sector policy dialogue and the formation of robust government institutions able to lead...

Water and sanitation utilities in Africa operate in a high-cost environment. They also have a mandate to at least partially recover their costs of operations and maintenance (O&M). As a result, water tariffs are higher than in other regions of the world. The increasing block tariff (IBT) is the...

The authors survey the recent literature which examines the impact of the business climate on productivity and growth in developing countries using enterprise surveys. Comparable enterprise surveys today cover more than 100,000 firms in 123 countries. The literature that has analyzed this data...

"This paper surveys the recent literature which examines the impact of business climate variables on productivity and growth in developing countries using enterprise surveys. Comparable enterprise surveys today cover some 70,000 firms in over 100 countries around the world. The literature that...

This note summarizes lessons from the Water and Sanitation Program's (WSP) technical assistance to improve performance and cost-recovery at the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) and Sierra Leone's Guma Valley Water Company (GVWC). The focus on cost-recovery reflects its critical...

Water insecurity "ranging from chronic water scarcity to lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation services, to hydrological uncertainty and extremes (floods and droughts)" can cause severe disruptions and compound fragilities in social, economic, and environmental systems. Untangling...