Outside the comfort zone? Lessons learnt from the early stages of a large-scale WOP programme

Capacity development is at the core of water operators' partnerships (WOPs), which aim to enhance the capacities and performance of water and sanitation service providers. This study sought to understand the factors in a WOP that favour or hinder the start-up phase of WOP projects. Fifty interviews were performed with representatives of the lead, beneficiary and additional partners of 18 projects of the European Commission programme during the first year of the programme. The article finds that WOP projects represent a considerable challenge for the staff of water utilities as participating in such partnerships requires a skill set that is different from the skills required in their daily work activities. The findings also suggest that the facilitation of the WOP start-up can smoothen and accelerate the development of WOP projects. Moreover, the article argues that because of limited time and financial resources, WOP projects need to find a balance between prioritizing impacts that can be achieved using the variety of capacity strengthening approaches that are available.