Water Sector Analysis Study
Technical Assistance|Activity Status: Closed
Overview
The objective of this study is to inform a broader access to water agenda about the role of OBA by reviewing lessons from Output- Based Aid projects in the water sector. The study will provide recommendations for mainstreaming OBA as well as reflect on the impact that the projects have made collectively in the sector. Relying on GPOBA’s best practices and lessons, the study will highlight the areas of focus during project identification, structuring and implementation in different sub-sectors, as well as recommend lesson-gathering practices throughout the project cycle.
The activities are completed and the analytical deliverables presented at the Program Council Meeting of GPOBA and approved in June 2016.
The study demonstrated how OBA has been an answer to challenges in the access to water agenda where sector contexts were conducive on paper but the delivery remained weak, as documented in the IDA/World Bank Country Partnership Strategies. The study also showed how OBA projects help discover true cost of access to water for the poor which is often higher than the average cost because the low-income families live in remote or flood- prone areas. If not documented and explained, this higher-than-average cost can create a bias against providing access to low-income families. Furthermore, OBA instrument – with its requirement of delivery of water service before the OBA subsidy disbursement – pushes the client to find the level of service that low-income families are willing to pay for, restructuring the project if needed. This was demonstrated when poor people would be unwilling to pay for cheaper communal water taps but would pay for water connections in their yards or houses. These and other examples will be used during country dialogues and OBA/RBF project design.