Title: Doing More with Less: Leveraging the Private Sector for Rural Water Supply in Benin

Language: English

Type: Document

Nature: Report

Published: May 1, 2015


Region: Sub-Saharan Africa

Country: Benin

Sector: Water and Sanitation

Keywords: Knowledge Lab, Water

Document(s):


Document Summary:

Working together, IFC and the World Bank helped develop public-privatepartnerships (PPPs) to extend the water supply into rural areas of Benin. For the first time in Benin, bankable long-term commercial agreements allowed private operators to raise funding from local commercial banks to undertake the necessary investments. This SmartLesson offers a perspective on what it takes to design and implement sustainable rural water PPP projects, and shares the lessons learned during the project implementation process.


Document Details:

The project, designed as a pilot program, complemented WSP’s ongoing sector sup- port in the country. Ten pilot rural water supply systems were selected in three dif- ferent municipalities across the country and grouped into four clusters of two to three systems each. Each of the four clus- ters was tendered as a separate transac- tion by the respective municipalities. The tender process led to the award of four eight-year concession agreements for the design, partial financing, rehabilitation, extension, and operation of the 10 rural water systems to three winning bidders.


Updated: March 8, 2022