Subregional workshop on the contractualization of water supply and sanitation services

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 20 April 2007. A workshop dedicated to the contractualization of water supply and sanitation (WSS) services was held from the 18-20 April 2007 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. This workshop was co-organized by the Decentralized Cooperation Programme of UNITAR, Veolia Environnement, the World Bank Institute (WBI), the Partnership for Municipal-Development and the city of Ouagadougou.

This workshop was intended for the medium-sized cities of four countries of West and Central Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The group of 23 participants comprised of mayors, executive directors of national water and sanitation firms, private and international operators.

The workshop organized in Ouagadougou consisted of:

1. A series of sessions and interactive discussions on contractualization looked at (i) from the specific angle of contracts (content, actors, phases); (ii) its utility for all parties, especially for local governments (interest, potentialities, achievement factors, limits); (iii) and the interdependence between the different contracts;

2. Presentations and debates on case studies;

3. Workshops on two topics stem from the debates. (i) Contracts and the municipalities’ role (ii) Access to WSS services: challenges to be faced by municipalities. The work group allowed a diagnosis to be made on the local government’s situation, regarding contractualization. It also allowed the suggestion of solutions concerning some malfunction cases and to make recommendations for the incorporation of contractualization into local policies related to access to water and sanitation.

Context

The Ouagadougou workshop permitted the development of new perspectives for the facilitation of the next steps of the process defined during the Montreal workshop on the contractualization of WSS services. The workshop in Montreal was held from the 17-20 October 2006. It was an international workshop to consider the contractualization of WSS services. It was co-organized by the World Bank Institute (WBI) and the International Secretariat for Water (SIE [1]) which took into account the contractualization in their capacity-building programme, further to the needs expressed by their partners. This workshop appears to have been the first in a process which aimed to define contractualization and adapt it for a better access to WSS services. The workshop in Ouagadougou was the follow-up of the Montreal workshop.