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The costs of meeting the SDG WASH targets will be several times higher than investment levels during the MDG era (2000-15). The immense scale of the financing gap calls for innovative solutions. In addition to mobilizing more funding another approach is to deliver the needed infrastructure more efficiently and effectively and thus reduce the financing gap. Capital expenditure efficiency (CEE)-the efficient and effective use of capital-is less documented compared to operational efficiency. Although improving operating efficiency is frequently highlighted and readily evaluated, the scope for capital cost efficiencies is poorly understood, frequently overlooked, and difficult to evaluate, even though the scale of savings can be significant-in fact, capital and operating costs are equally important when considering full cost recovery. This study compiles case studies that show the andquot;art of the possibleandquot; in CEE. The report is not encyclopedic-many more examples could surface from a comprehensive study. It also doesn't quantify the savings possible through increasing CEE. However, almost all the examples show capital savings of 25 percent or more compared to traditional solutions. This alone this should give policy makers, donors, and utility managers pause for thought and encourage them to develop CEE in their sectors, projects, or utilities. A 25 percent improvement in CEE would allow existing investments to deliver a 33 percent increase in benefits.

Infrastructure economics --- Infrastructure economics and finance --- Infrastructure finance --- Public sector development --- Sanitation and sewerage --- Water supply --- Water supply and sanitation --- Water supply and sanitation economics --- Water supply and sanitation finance --- Water utilities

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The objective of this report is to better understand the challenges of meeting Sustainable Development Goal 6.1 from the perspective of off-grid services currently being used by a large and increasing proportion of the urban population. For this assessment, two key distinct areas with high current or potential off-grid service dependence have been analyzed-core urban areas and peri-urban areas. The core urban areas comprise primarily the slums or poor population pockets that have not been covered by conventional piped systems. The peri-urban areas are characterized, on the one hand, by the displacement of population, industries, and services from the city center to the periphery, resulting in economically rich growth centers, while on the other hand, by slow or poor absorption of these areas into provisioning of basic urban facilities or services by local bodies, resulting in high dependence on independent off-grid service providers. At its heart, this is a scoping study which can provide the foundation for follow-on work that would lead to "reimagined" off-grid service delivery arrangements that complement piped systems-not as a sub-optimal solution but as an acceptable alternative that will ensure all urban residents have "equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water.

Drinking Water --- Sustainable Development Goals --- Water Supply --- Water Utilities

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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.

Drinking Water --- Incentives --- Political Economy --- Public Sector Development --- Public Sector Management and Reform --- Public Sector Reform --- Sustainability --- Water Resource Management --- Water Supply --- Water Supply and Sanitation --- Water Supply and Sanitation Economics --- Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions

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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.

Incentives --- Sanitation and sewerage --- Water supply --- Water supply and sanitation --- Water supply and sanitation economics --- Water supply and sanitation governance and institutions

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Since 2016 the World Bank has explored a wide range of country experiences in delivering better water supply and sanitation services. The analyses led to publication of three new global frameworks for designing water reforms: Policy, Institutional, and Regulatory Incentives, which looks at the broader sector enabling environment; Water Utility Turnaround Framework, which looks at utility-level reforms; and Maximizing Finance for Development, which looks at shifting the financing paradigm to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. The three frameworks-individually and as a compendium-set forth the key principles of a more holistic approach to reform that diverges from the traditional focus on infrastructure economics to a deeper understanding of the behavior of and between sector institutions and of the people within those institutions. Each country-specific reform path will gradually bring the sector to higher degrees of maturity with a strong focus on improving financial sustainability. This summary note integrates the three lines of work-utility reform, sector reform, and sector finance-for readers to understand the critical links between the three spheres. New contributions of this note are a Maturity Matrix for assessing where a country is in its reform process and where it wants to go and a Maturity Ladder that identifies typical actions to move from one stage of maturity to the next. Tools and references are also provided to help governments start on their reform path.

Water Sector Reform --- Water Utilities