Water Sector Note by Ghazia Aslam, Policy Fellow, George Mason University

There is a growing consensus that although financial and technical issues matter, they do not constitute the only barrier to proper water provision across the world. In order to address challenges in service delivery in the water sector there is a need to focus on governance and accountability structures in the sector. Practitioners have increasingly explored social accountability mechanisms in order to address critical governance challenges in the sector (Ndwa, 2015). Social accountability approaches in the water sector have been implemented in a variety of ways, and include various dimensions. Most popularly, the establishment of water user committees, the compilation of citizen feedback, for example through score cards, and the establishment of joint mechanisms for monitoring have led to service delivery improvements in the water sector. More here.