NOTE D’ORIENTATION - Examen des dépenses publiques du point de vue du secteur de l’eau et de l’assainissement

This Guidance Note, published by the World Banks' Water Partnership Program in 2012, discusses the challenges that are specific to public expenditure management in water and sanitation and the difficulties often involved in identifying sector expenditures. It is based on the analysis of the existing coverage, quality and results of the 42 Public Expenditure Reviews (PERs) covering water and sanitation undertaken from 2002–2010.

The challenges particular to this sector stem from three factors:

• First, countries define water and sanitation differently (e.g., drainage may or may not be included, rural services may be considered separately).
• Second, responsibilities for water and sanitation policy are often divided horizontally across government ministries and agencies, vertically between national and local governments and functionally among the public, private, and non-governmental sectors.
• Third, the roles of these multiple actors may be unclear or overlapping.

The Guidance for Conducting PERs includes: identification and preparation; contents and minimum coverage of a PER; guidance on how a PER analysis can focus on results and measurement; dissemination; follow up and monitoring.

The publication includes interesting Annexes, such as:

• ANNEX 1: List of Public Expenditure Reviews from 2003–2010
• ANNEX 2: Data and Methodological Factors in Water Public Expenditure Reviews
• ANNEX 5: Water and Sanitation Sector Public Expenditure Reviews—Selected Case Studies