A water operators’ partnership (WOP) is a collaboration between two or more water or sanitation operators, conducted on a not-for-profit basis, in the aim of developing their capacity. These partnerships are being used as a way of helping the world’s public operators to sustainably deliver adequate water and sanitation for all. This is one of a new set of Case Studies on WOPs in Africa, which follows a set of three Cases on WOPs in Asia published in 2012.

The aim of the Case Studies series is to provide readable and accessible reports on WOPs in practice. The author has looked at how the partnerships were set up, implemented and monitored, the changes and improvements they brought about in the partner utilities, and their impact – both achieved and anticipated – on service delivery, future investment, and replication.