Strategic planning for water utilities in developing countries

A common feature of public water utilities in developing countries is their lack of a commercial orientation. As a result, many utilities find themselves locked in a cycle of poor corporate performance—with low coverage of services, huge amounts of non-revenue water and insufficient funding for maintenance and expansion. Strategic planning in such turbulent times should be relevant, cost-effective and transforming. This paper discusses a strategic planning framework to assist utilities in developing meaningful and useful performance improvement plans. Recent application of this framework in Africa has demonstrated its relevancy, cost-effectiveness and potential to transform poorly performing water utilities.