Ten Themes for Improving Partnership Governance in Water Services

Partnerships are one of many strategies for improving drinking water services for all water consumers. Typical motivations for entering into a partnership between two or more institutions are lack of financial resources or insufficient capacity. However, designing and implementing effective partnerships require consideration of governance structures. One way forward is for partners to think through the following ten themes:

Facts about the Ten Themes

1. The ten themes form the basis of a set of resources consisting of two guidebooks, a digital questionnaire, a research database and practitioner documents, each targeting a particular audience. They are available online in English, Spanish and French.
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2. The ten themes are a starting point for understanding public-private and multi-stakeholder partners (any combination of public, private and civil society).
3. The themes are relevant for asking questions about the expectations of potential or existing partners, throughout the partnership process.
4. These themes can be applied by water professionals from the civil society, public or private sector, working on the local, national, regional or international level.
5. In practice, the ten themes listed here may not be the only areas necessary to encourage a successful partnership.
6. The ten themes were designed by The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue, through a rigorous multi-stakeholder process. This consortium approached BPD to share the framework with and gather feedback from water professionals, through its research and training activities.
7. BPD shared and gathered feedback on this framework during 2006-2008 from individuals living or working in Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Argentina, Senegal, Bolivia, South Africa and The Philippines, primarily through workshops lasting from one to three days.

Briefing Note

Poverty Responsiveness in Partnerships 

(206 kb pdf)

A quick-reference briefing note on one of the ten themes.