Lessons

Thanks to its privileged contact with partnership projects that on a daily basis deliver basic services to poor people in different countries, BPD has been able to study how partnerships function in practice and how water and sanitation can be provided in low-income areas.  Each of the projects with which it has worked bring the public and private sector together with civil society (non-governmental organisations, community based organizations etc).

As a result of this close access BPD has been able to contribute to wider learning on two main issues: on how partnerships between different sectors work, and on water and sanitation services for poor communities.  This learning is encapsulated in a few different ways; in short notes on specific topics (such as how to contract NGOs), in longer studies on aspects of service delivery (such as the role of education and awareness campaigns), in reports on workshops discussing partnerships in water and sanitation (such as the public sector workshop report or report on the role of transaction advisors), and via occasional papers (e.g. looking at the changing context of reform in the water and sanitation sector).

These Lessons can all be found in this section of the website, split into two broad categories: Serving the Poor and Partnerships.

Serving the Poor

In Serving the Poor you will find a variety of learning on topics that closely relate to how to actually deliver sustainable and affordable service to the poor, and how partnerships may help accomplish this.  An example is a short note on how partnerships can enable innovative approaches such as appropriate technology, community managed systems, etc.

Partnerships

In Partnerships are lessons that relate more closely to the dynamics of bringing different sectors together through partnership.  Examples include notes on the benefits and challenges of partnership for public, private and civil society organizations or how to monitor and evaluate partnerships themselves (and develop indicators to assist this).