Water

Comparative Analysis of Water Sector Reforms
Tracking Progress in Asia and the Pacific

What makes reform happen? ADB has embarked on a study to assess water sector reforms and investments, and the role of national water policies and laws as instruments of reform. Background Objectives Expected Outputs Phases of the Study Contact

SPOTLIGHT ADB completed the first phase of this study. Read the results. Region-wide adoption of ADB Water Policy Actions Success Factors for Reform Measures Country Briefs

Governments, international development organizations, and bilateral donors share a concerted effort to overhaul water sector policies and institutions to improve governance and address water management in a holistic manner.

But their actual progress on this is not well documented. Not only do the policies and reforms differ on a per country basis, but also the indicators used to study them remain fragmented. As such, the findings cannot be integrated to provide a global or regional perspective on the progress in implementing water policy and reform measures. Also, the planned cross-fertilization of lessons learned among countries is not happening.

Clearly, there is a need to build the body of information about how water sector policies and reforms are progressing.

Beyond this, however, is the need to understand how they have influenced government's decisions on where to invest their resources, and how these investments have affected the development of a country's strategies and programs.

For ADB, these needs acquire a greater significance when related to its water sector portfolio. Until recently, more than 25% of ADB's ongoing loans were for water-related projects. But the level of ADB's water lending over the past decade has shown a gradual decline as a percentage of overall ADB lending.

What causes this decline? To what extent has each ADB developing member country (DMC) pursued water sector improvements? And how significantly have the policies and reforms introduced contributed to this pursuit of water sector improvements?

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This study will

• improve the strategies and processes for undertaking reforms in DMCs
• prioritize the reform initiatives that can work best in each of the DMCs
• develop corresponding capacity building interventions
• make available to each DMC the findings for their comparative pursposes
• prioritize regional cooperation initiatives to exchange experience and catalyze reforms
• recommend how lessons learned and good practices from water sector reforms and policies can be reflected in ADB's and its DMCs' water sector programs and strategies.

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The results of the analysis will be used to generate insights into:

• What works under what circumstances?
• What are the preconditions for success in pursuing reform initiatives?
• Are there commonalities that can be useful in sub-regional and cross regional contexts for sharing of experience?
• How can reforms and policies be used to generate more investments for the water sector?
• How can ADB regional departments advance their work on policy and reform measures in DMCs?

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	Phase 1- Assessing Water Sector Policies and Reforms This is a fact-finding exercise designed to provide an overview of the status of water policies, reforms and investments in selected DMCs. Read about the findings of the study.
	Phase 2- Assessing the Role of National Water Policies and Laws as Instruments for Reform and Investments This study will assess contribution of water policies and laws to the design and implementation of water sector reforms.

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