2. Benchmarking Water Services

3. Contributing Partners
UNESCO-IHE USP of Brazil CEPT University of India NWSC of Uganda Vewin/CDC of the Netherlands
These organisations have jointly prepared the training materials

4. Course Objectives To present and discuss:
The concept and methodologies of benchmarking, i.e. performance assessment and performance improvement
Benchmarking experiences in the water sector
To do an exercise and a game with a view to:
Gain some hands on experience with i) assessing water utility performance, comparing them and identifying areas of improvement; ii) prioritizing measures and wisely investing funds to achieve improved performance
To discuss various cases with a view to:
Understand some of the tools available with utilities and regulators to improve performance
To develop a Joint or Individual Action Plan for application in participant’s own organisation

5. Course programme
Week 1
Lectures, Exercise, Site Visit, Utility simulation game,
Week 2
Four case Studies, Action Planning
Action planning is shown in red and is addressed further in the next slide

6. Action Plan
Goal: to enable each participant to apply the learnings on benchmarking from this course to his/her own work environment by developing a doable Action Plan
Process: the Plan will be prepared on the last course day. Each participant will identify his/her Professional Goals in the area of BM, the Issue/ Problem to be targeted, and the Solutions. From there the Action Plan will be developed. Participants are encouraged to start thinking about their Action Plan from the 1st course day onwards
This slide is meant:
To make the participants aware that they have to complete a BM Action Plan at the end of the course and
To get them to start thinking about this subject in relation to their own working environment.

7. Sessions for Week 1
Days 1/2: Lectures Benchmarking: Introduction, presentations, discussion Day 3: Exercise Benchmarking Day 4: Site Visit Day 5: Water Utility Simulation game
This programme may be adjusted to fit the local situation. It is imperative however that the sequence of lectures, exercise and simulation game is adhered to. The exercise provides a ’hands-on’ opportunity to get to know Performance Indicators, analyse PI values for one company, to compare the performance of one company with another one and to identify what and where one can learn from others. The game follows up on that by letting participants manage a company and try to improve its Pis by carefully selecting improvement measures. The visit to a selected water utility is meant to see if and how the utility is making use of benchmarking and to see about the costs and benefits of benchmarking.

8. Sessions for Week 2
Day 6: Case Study #1: PNQS, Brazil: prize Day 7: Case Study #2: NWASCO, Zambia: regulator Day 8: Case Study #3: NWSC, Uganda: incentivising performance improvement Day 9: Case Study #5: PAS, India: Performance assessment & improvement Day 10: Action Planning
Week 2 consists of 4 case studies and a day of Action Planning. The four case studies look at different applications of benchmarking in the water sector. The cases are situated on three continents and look at benchmarking from a utility perspective (Uganda), a national/regional coordinating perspective (Brazil, India) and a regulator’s perspective (Zambia). The cases were selected on their merit and the accesiibility of the information by the case authors.

9. Topics Days 1/2 Opening session (#1) Introduction to Benchmarking (#2)
Application of BM in the WatSan Sector (#3)
Institutionalization of Benchmarking:
Voluntary benchmarking by Utilities (#4)
Mandatory benchmarking required by Regulators (#5)
Benchmarking experiences in the WatSan Sector
Perspectives (#6)
Methods (#7)
Indicators (#8)
Performance Improvement (#9)
Framework for Pro-poor indicators (#10)
#2 is a general introduction to benchmarking; #3 shows how the water and sanitation sector have started to use benchmarking; #4 shows application by utilities, at national, regional and even at global level; and the use of benchmarking by national regulators; #6, 7 and 8 provide details on the what and how of performance assessment; #9 illustrates performance assessment and esp. improvement through a case study; #10 shows the specific application of performance assessment in relation to watsan services provision to the poor

10. Training Materials Days 1/2
Presentation (120 slides)
Support Material (…. pages)
Additional Reading and References (.. pages)