Workshop: Sustainable water services for the urban poor: Indicators and Benchmarking for Improved Utility Performance
Thursday 23 September, 11:15-15:30, Incl 12.45-14.15 lunch break
Venue: Palais des Congres (Room tbc), IWA World Water Congress, Montreal, Canada
If you are interested in pro-poor drinking water and sanitation services provision, here is an opportunity to participate in an exchange between water utilities, regulators, practicing professionals and researchers on the development of a dedicated benchmarking system for the provision of water and sanitation services for the Urban Poor in Middle and Low Income Countries (MLIC's).
A session on this subject will be held on Thursday 23 September, 11:15-15:30 hrs during the IWA World Water Congress in Montreal. Session conveners UNESCO-IHE, Universidad Sao Paulo, IWA and other partners in the PROBE project[1] would like to enrich their session by inviting stakeholders to submit their experiences with pro-poor services provision in the form of a brief case study (5-6 pages). All accepted case studies (criteria: relevance and quality of the case study) will be compiled in a document that will be available online and in hard copy at the congress. A selection of the accepted case studies (criterion: presence of the author at the congress) will be presented verbally during the session and/or during a poster session that will be organized immediately before the session and during the lunch break.
The cases should address one only of the following questions: 1) What are the perspectives and indicators that best establish the preparedness and performance of utilities in serving the urban poor?; 2) What are the key success factors from best practices in service provision to the urban poor?; 3) What are the internal and external incentives that drive utilities to improve performance in the area of pro-poor services provision?; 4) What information do they need and which methods do water providers use to identify the urban poor?; and 5) What should a toolbox for pro-poor water service provision contain and how could it best be structured?
The session will start with plenary introductions on the PROBE research project, its first results and the activities in the coming years, and on the related work coming out of IWA's Benchmarking task group and Access to water and sanitation task force. After that, there will be an interactive part with discussions around five tables, whereby each table focuses on one of the five questions above. At each table, case studies that are relevant to the question concerned will be presented to prime the discussion. After that water and sanitation utilities, regulators, practicing water professionals and academics are invited to participate by relating their knowledge and experiences, by coming up with their requests and suggestions, by engaging in discussion an debate, and finally, by formulating recommendations to direct further inquiry. The findings from each table will be presented and discussed in the concluding plenary. The session will also provide an opportunity for organizations and individuals to express their interest to associate with, participate in or contribute to the PROBE project.
Please send your case study abstract (max 150-250 words) on later than 2 July to Maarten Blokland, m.blokland@unesco-ihe.org and Åse Johannessen ase.johannessen@iwahq.org. With your submission, please note 1) the question your abstract is addressing and 2) if you will attend the congress. Acceptance of the abstract will be communicated by 9 July. The draft case study will need to be submitted by 13 August and the final version by 27 August 2010. Please be aware that the conveners are not in a position to compensate expenses for fieldwork or attendance of the congress (travel, registration or subsistence).
[1] KNUST from Ghana; NWWEC and PWUT from Iran; SABESP and ARSESP from Brazil; Suez Environnement from France; University of Zambia and NWASCO from Zambia; and Vewin of The Netherlands are the other signatories to the PROBE (Benchmarking for Pro-poor Water Services Provision) project
