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Guiding Principles

DSMs are driven by the principles of universality, subsidiary, additionality, leverage and institutional, environmental, and financial sustainability.

• Universality. Embrace a non-discrimination principle on any grounds. Focus on promoting universal access prioritizing vulnerable groups and individuals and those facing systemic forms of discrimination;
• Subsidiary. Recognize the crucial role of sub-national and local institutions in developing and delivering water and sanitation services and in reinforcing democratic participatory planning – within a framework of good governance, efficiency, transparency, and accountability;
• Additionality. Complement, not replace, existing cooperation channels such as Official Development Assistance (ODA). Facilitate leveraging of new funding and investments for local authorities;
• Leverage. Aspire to facilitate a leverage effect for larger investments triggering reductions of risks perception and transaction costs for loans from development banks, equity funds or any other private funding;
• Institutional sustainability. Establish DSMs under a good governance base. Reinforce ownership, operation and maintenance capacities of sub-national institutions and local governments; Support decentralizing resources to local authorities to help them fulfill their responsibilities in providing universal access;
• Environmental sustainability. Promote Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) models. Encourage prevention and adaptation measures to protect users from natural disasters and climate change impacts;
• Financial sustainability. Encourage adapted, inclusive and proportional mechanisms for cost recovery and self-financing.

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