Scaling up the practice of water operators’ partnership (WOP) and its linkages with investment programmes

Funding availability is limiting the extent to which water operators can engage in helping one another to provide safe access to water and sanitation services. This paper aims to deepen the understanding of the current funding scenario for Water Operators’ Partnerships (WOPs), obstacles, and possible initiatives that can promote the mobilisation of additional funds. It does so by analysing costs, sizes, main sources of funding, and the co-existence of WOPs with investment programmes. Some significant findings are the increasing recognition of the positive influence of WOPs by donors and financiers, the emergence and interest from development agencies in WOP-dedicated programmes, the signalling of a nascent shift in perception of the value of WOPs by development financial institutions (DFIs), and the emergence of different scenarios in which WOPs and investment programmes co-exist in practice. Some key challenges identified are the low visibility and dissemination of WOP outcomes, the low feasibility of the WOPs to be funded by the technical assistance component of investment programmes, the need for DFIs and WOP proponents to innovate and create structures and processes that ensure early communication and coordination between them to maximise synergies between WOPs and investment programmes throughout the investment programme cycle.