Utilities as system leaders: professionalisation for safely managed services

New WASH Systems Academy course

Very recently, the Systems Academy launched a new course focused on utilities. This course allows learners to understand the critical role that utilities play within the system for water and sanitation service delivery, as well as the broad strategies to enable or enhance that role. The starting point is simple: utilities are key actors, but they are not the whole system. So utility leaders need to relate their strategies to other actors. And other actors in the system need to reflect how their strategies and actions can make utilities thrive. The course is not about how to manage a utility.

The course highlights four related ideas:
First, utilities play a central role in service delivery, traditionally they have played that role in urban areas, but increasingly in peri-urban and rural areas. Their decisions on investment, operations, customer relations and risk management have direct implications for service levels and sustainability.

Second, there are concrete areas where utility leaders themselves can drive performance improvements. These include internal processes such as planning, asset management, finance, project preparation and innovation.

Third, utility performance depends heavily on the enabling environment — policies, regulation, finance, human resources and accountability. Strengthening this environment is therefore just as important as internal reforms, and the course explores what kinds of measures can make a real difference.

Finally, utilities are not the only service providers. In many contexts, they coexist with community-based organisations, small private operators and informal providers. In some cases, these providers are gradually formalised or integrated into utility structures. But becoming a ‘utility’ is not an end in itself. There are many poorly performing utilities. What really matters is professionalisation: the capacity, incentives and systems required to deliver reliable, safe and inclusive services.

Professionalisation of utilities

This thinking strongly connects to the upcoming Africa Water and Sanitation Systems Leadership Symposium in Kigali, where professionalisation of service providers — including utilities — is one of the central themes.

Across several countries, Riva and partners are supporting utility leaders to strengthen internal performance. In Ethiopia, for example, with support from UNICEF, Riva and VEI, they are working with town water utilities on business planning and business plan improvement, followed by concrete actions to implement those plans. The focus is not on producing documents, but on helping utilities make better-informed decisions about costs, revenues, investments and service priorities.

In Burkina Faso, Riva is supporting ONEA, the national utility, on master planning in multiple districts. This work addresses professionalisation in two ways. On the one hand, it supports the transition from fragmented municipal provision towards a stronger national utility model. On the other, it strengthens internal processes within ONEA for planning, coordination and long-term investment decisions.

In Rwanda, our collaboration with WASAC has focused on three distinct but related areas. The first is the development of a climate resilience strategy, recognising the growing risks posed by climate variability. The second concerns strengthening project preparation functions. Utilities increasingly need to develop bankable infrastructure projects to access finance from development banks, and this requires robust processes, data and internal coordination. The third area is the development of WASAC’s research and innovation agenda: identifying which innovations can realistically improve performance and service outcomes, rather than adopting technology for its own sake.

Access to finance remains a major constraint for many utilities. Here, IRC has been facilitating dialogue between public development banks and utilities, helping both sides better understand each other’s requirements and constraints.

Safely managed services, the ultimate goal

Ultimately, the goal is safely managed services. Achieving this requires looking beyond individual organisations towards system-wide change. For sanitation in particular, it means addressing the entire service chain — containment, emptying, transport, treatment and reuse — and clarifying the roles of utilities and other professionalised service providers. In an upcoming paper and course, we explore what this transition entails, and what it means for utilities operating in increasingly complex service delivery landscapes.

Utilities are not a silver bullet. But as professional, system-oriented organisations, they can be powerful drivers of change — if the right capacities, incentives and enabling conditions are in place.