Publications on transparency, accountability and integrity in water

A selection of available publications on transparency, accountability and integrity in the water and sanitation sector from IRC and partner organisations.

Training manual on water integrity

IRC was one of the WIN members which contributed to a new training manual on water integrity published by SIWI, WIN, CapNet and WATERnet. IRC's Alana Potter was contracted to design the learning process and finalise the text. Many of the materials and exercises were tested during IRCs preventing corruption training. We envisage using this excellent guide in future training courses.

Theme 3: Ensuring accountability

An unrecognised cost of delivering decentralised WASH services is corruption. Recently it has become more widely recognised that the WASH sector has a corruption issue it needs to confront (see Global Corruption Report, Transparency International, 2008). Access to information on sector performance is vital for financial accountability, so is strengthening systems of accountability through promoting citizens or consumer voice type activities. Here you can find all the papers from the accountability theme at IRC's 2010 symposium Pumps, Pipes and Promises.

Water briefs for U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre

U4 is an anti-corruption resource centre for donors operated by the CMI Chr. Michelsen Institute in Norway. Recently IRC have prepared three briefs for U4 on the water sector. The briefs cover 1) petty corruption at the consumer/ provider interface, 2) links between corruption and institutional reforms in the sector such as SWAPs and separation of roles and functions, and 3) grand corruption in major infrastructure projects.

Improving Transparency, Integrity and Accountability in Water Supply and Sanitation: Action Learning Experiences

IRC were major contributors to this book, published by the World Bank, which provides a useful guide for diagnosing, analyzing, and preventing corruption in water supply and sanitation. It was developed with a focus on municipalities and Central America but presents tools and methodologies with generic applicability.

Corruption risks in water licensing

A review of corruption risks in water licensing with case studies from Chile and Kazakhstan.

Global Corruption Report 2008: Corruption in the Water Sector

Transparency International (2008). Global Corruption Report 2008 : Corruption in the Water Sector. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press. xxix, 367 p. ISBN 978-0-521-72795-2.

IRC contributed two sections (on links with integrated water resources management by John Butterworth) and the role of donors (by Kathy Shordt and Grit Martinez) to this survey of corruption in the water sector.

In its thematic section, the report demonstrates that corruption is a cause and catalyst for the global water crisis. Corruption affects all aspects of the water sector from water resources management to drinking water services, irrigation and hydropower.

More information

About Corruption and Transparency in the Water and Sanitation Sector

This Thematic Overview Paper (TOP) is a brief overview of issues, approaches and information resources on corruption and transparency in the water and sanitation sector.

Read more or download TOP16_Transp_06.pdf (236.6 kB)

The importance and risks of identifying corruption in the water sector

Should we be highlighting that corruption is a problem in the water sector, when there is such an urgent need to improve access to water in the developing world?

Decentralisation and the role of NGOs in combating corruption in the WASH sector

This paper by Cor Dietvorst and Bep Oostrom, presented at the 32nd WEDC conference, questions the assumed relation between the decentralisation and privatisation of the provision of WASH services on the one hand and increased transparency and accountability on the other. Practices in India and Africa show that this is often not the case.