DIG, as a subsonctractor to ARD, was recently awarded the Sustainable Water and Sanitation in Africa contract under USAID’s Water II IQC. The four-year program is designed to strengthen water and sanitation utility governance and finance in order to expand and improve water services for the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa. Starting in 2010, SUWASA will provide technical assistance and small capital grants to support reform initiatives in a dozen or more countries.

Specifically, DIG will participate in the design and implementation of innovative financing for water services. In doing so, we will leverage our experience in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire where, through the Gates Foundation-funded Urbis program, DIG is developing a sustainable business model for water provision to underserved communities. This entails creating small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) to oversee water usage, fraud prevention, and payment collection from households on behalf of the private water company SODECI. The SMEs’ profits are based on an incentive scheme, with revenues tied to a percentage of the money they collect from households. To read more on DIG’s Water Utility Reform Efforts in Abidjan, click here.