The document summarizes a presentation about the Water Governance Facility (WGF), a partnership between SIWI and UNDP to support water governance. It discusses why accountability is important for sustainable water and sanitation services. Up to 40% of water supply investments in developing countries become dysfunctional after a few years due to governance challenges. The document then summarizes two publications from the WGF on accountability - a concept note that defines and discusses types of accountability, and a reference guide that provides 19 action sheets with guidance on improving accountability in water and sanitation programs through three levels of intervention.

1. Accountability
for
Sustainability:
making the
links work
Håkan Tropp
OECD WGI Meeting 2 Nov. 2015

2. The SIWI/UNDP Water Governance Facility
WGF is a UNDP/SIWI partnership to
enhance the contribution of water
governance towards the reduction
of inequalities, exclusion and
poverty, and the enhancement of
environmental sustainability, by:
• Providing policy support and advice to
governments, international agencies,
civil society organizations and others
actors
• Building capacity and managing
knowledge on water governance
• Contributing to global processes and
assessments

3. Why does accountability matter?
• As much as 30-40% of water supply
investments in developing countries are
dys-functional after 2-5 years.
• ECA report about WASH programs in 23
countries identified governance
challenges as the main threat to long
term sustainability (ECA, 2012).
• Main constraints identified by ODI for
service delivery (Booth, 2010; Wild et al.,
2012):
– Incoherent policies and fragmented
institutions
– Poor top down disciplines and limited
bottom-up accountability relationship
– Limited scope for problem solving and
local collective action
Photo: Joost Butenop, WIN photo contest

4. Accountability in WASH in
two documents

5. An overview of the concept of accountability and its
importance to successful and sustainable water and
sanitation service delivery
What is Accountability?:
Accountability refers to sets of mechanisms that
make institutions in the public and private sector
answerable for their actions and ensures that
actions can be applied against poor performance,
illegal acts and abuses of power
Accountability means that elected officials and
those in charge of providing access to services
have to explain and justify their actions and
decisions to users and may suffer sanctions in the
case of eventual misconduct.
The Concept Note:
Opening the black box of accountability

6. •Definitions and types of accountability
- administrative, political, social, and more
• Why sustainable WASH services require institutions that are held to
account
•Accountability links in the WASH service delivery framework – the rural and
urban settings
The content

7. Examples: Accountability relations in
WASH services

8.  19 Action sheets with practical
information and guidance
 Structured to help you match the
diagnosis of accountability weaknesses to
different solutions and options for action
 Help to design or improve WASH
programmes to address a wide range of
accountability gaps
The Reference Guide for Programming:
putting accountability in action

9. Three levels of intervention for
external support agencies
PRIMARY ACCOUNTABILITY OBJECTIVES LEVEL OF INTERVENTION
RESPONSIBILITY
Setting the scene - defining the roles and
enabling cooperation in service delivery.
ANSWERABILITY
A new quality of relationships - informing,
consulting and including stakeholders in all
stages of service delivery
ENFORCEABILITY
Exercising oversight - monitoring performance,
supporting compliance and enforcement

10. Objectives Action Sheets
Objective 1:
Enhance policy coherence
1 A) Definition/revision of sectoral policies
Objective 2:
Clearly define allocation of
responsibilities between
stakeholders
2 A) Instruments to clarify roles and responsibilities of users and service providers
2 B) Instruments to clarify the delegation from governments to service providers
Objective 3:
Put coordination mechanisms in
place
3 A) Supporting sector coordination and sector reviews
Objective 4:
Enhance the flow of information and
use of consumer feedback
4 A) Real time monitoring of water and sanitation services
4 B) Citizen report cards
4 C) Community scorecards
Objective 5:
Improve consumers’ access to
information
5 A) Informal mechanisms for information dissemination
5 B) Disclosure of information by State agencies and service providers
Objective 6:
Create spaces for stakeholder
participation and influence
6 A) Public expenditure tracking surveys
6 B) Participatory budgeting
6 C) Community based monitoring
6 D) Spaces of dialogue and interaction on water and sanitation services
Objective 7:
Support the establishment or
functioning of a regulatory function
7 A) The regulatory body, a central policy and oversight body for water services
7 B) Water Watch Groups
Objective 8:
Strengthen external and internal
control mechanisms
8 A) The role of consumer associations in holding state and providers to account
8 B) Institutional mechanisms for oversight and checks and balances
8 C) Utilities´ complaint and grievance mechanisms
8 D) Integrity Pact for Procurement

11. Structure of the Action Sheets

12. http://watergovernance.org/programmes/accountability-for-
sustainablity
Thank you