GAT Kenya

Development of a Governance Assessment Tool for the Water Sector Trust Fund (WSTF) in Kenya

Kenya

2019

Client

Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (BZ) – WaterWorx Program

Beneficiaries

Primary beneficiaries: Water Sector Trust Fund (WSTF) and other donors
Secondary beneficiaries: Water Service Providers (WSPs) in Kenya

Providing access to safe water and sanitation services is vital for development and it remains one of the significant challenges in a water-scarce country like Kenya. At the same time, water supply services continue to be strongly affected by lack of integrity and low performance of water utilities or informal service providers. Financing and developing required capacities and skills are further key constraints. These dimensions of the enabling environment affect services and the ability to execute investments.

To contribute to the establishment of integrity instruments, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, through its WaterWorx Program, contacted us through our sister organisation, cewas. We aimed to support the Water Sector Trust Fund (WSTF) in identifying gaps and creating incentives for Water Utilities in Kenya to align governance structures to the new legal requirements.

We embarked then on developing a tool to facilitate a detailed assessment of the governance structure and performance of water utilities. The tool is meant to enable the WSTF to manage governance-related risks in investment projects and inform donors and investors about the governance challenges and risks of individual WSPs applying for infrastructure development financing or implement WSTF projects. Thanks to implementing the tool, the Water Sector Trust Fund (WSTF) and other users can make informed investment decisions and mitigate integrity risks in investment projects.

To develop the Governance Assessment Tool for the Water Sector Trust Fund (WSTF) in Kenya, we carried out the following activities:

Explore and discover

Analysis of the WSP governance in Kenya and existing performance and governance structure evaluation methodologies.

Co-create and design

Design of a tailor-made excel based tool consisting of 70 indicators, developed in a participatory manner.
Conduction of five pilot assessments in NAIVAWASS (Naivasha), HOMAWASCO (Homa Bay), NARUWASCO (Nakuru), GAWASCO (Garissa) and NCWSC (Nairobi) to test and evaluate the tool.

Empower