An international workshop, organised by the OECD EAP Task Force, highlighted "best practice" for benchmarking initiatives in the water supply and sanitation sector of the EECCA region (Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia) and provided a discussion forum on potential future applications in the context of investment decisions. In her contribution, Nicole Kranz presented recent national experiences with benchmarking programmes in France, England and Wales, the Netherlands, Brazil and Sweden.

Next to water managers and NGO representatives from the region, officials from the EU as well as IFI participated in the international workshop, which, based on the results of the Waterbench project, highlighted experience with benchmarking in the region and aimed to discuss future applications and challenges for such approaches.

Particularly considering the extensive need for investment in the water supply and sanitation sector over the next years, benchmarking offers an effective approach to monitoring and evaluating the technical as well as financial performance of water utilities in the region. In addition, including social and environmental indicators in the assessment schemes will allow for a more effective communication with external stakeholders as well.

The presentation [pdf, 333 KB, English] of Nicole Kranz is available for download.

The results of the workshop will be made available on the OECD website.