Fluid Dynamics? Achieving greater progress on aid effectiveness in the water sector - lessons from three countries

The report looks at alignment of donor and government funding for water and sanitation in three countries (Bangaldesh, Uganda and Ethiopia) in comparison to alignment in other social sctors such as health and education. The experience in water and sanitation has been relatively poor with poor alignment and limited accountabilty. Uganda has the best track record but there are major exclusions from the sector-wide planning framework - most notably urban water supply and sewerage. Other sectors appear to do slightly better but the picture is not as clear as the authors expected. The general level of commitment to alignment, coupled with good governance, appears to have a more significant effect than the characteristics of individual sectors. Thus Uganda performs better in general than the other countries across all three sectors while Bangladesh has the poorest experiece.