Enabling Effective Public Utility Provision in Rural and Small-Town Contexts

The expansion of public utility service provision into rural and small-town contexts represents one of the most significant shifts in rural water service delivery in sub-Saharan Africa.

In many countries, recent sector policies and regulatory reforms have led to the adoption or expansion of public utility models for rural and small-town water supply services. This trend is occurring through two main pathways:

• Pathway 1: Historically urban-focused utilities whose mandates are extended to rural and small-town areas.

• Pathway 2: Dedicated rural-focused utilities created from scratch, by modifying the mandate of an existing institution, or by consolidating smaller service providers.

A defining feature of this shift is that these utility models are overwhelmingly established within core government systems, giving them a stronger institutional basis for scaling than the many externally funded, donor-supported operators that have proliferated in recent years.

Aguaconsult, with funding from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, recently led a multi-country study to identify the critical factors enabling and constraining effective public utility service provision in rural and small-town contexts.

You can access the online version of the multi-country synthesis version of the report here. Country reports for Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia are also available.

You can access a version of the multi-country synthesis report for printing here. Printable versions of the country reports for Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia are also available.