Guidance Note : Public Expenditure Review from the Perspective of the Water and Sanitation Sector

Abstract

The objective of this guidance note:
 public expenditure review from the perspective of the water
 supply and sanitation sector is to provide World Bank staff
 with a body of knowledge and good practice guidelines to
 help them evaluate the allocation of public resources to
 water and sanitation services in a consistent manner and to
 increase their knowledge of public expenditure issues in the
 sector. This guidance note discusses the challenges that are
 specific to public expenditure management in water and
 sanitation and the difficulties often involved in
 identifying sector expenditures. 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.