Malawi Water Sector Investment Plan

The problem

Malawi had hundreds of water supply improvement projects it wanted to develop, but they were not coordinated, could all be funded, and in many cases were donor-driven and not aligned with government priorities.

How we helped

Castalia helped the government to develop an optimized investment plan which prioritized and coordinated projects. To do so, we gathered data on all planned and ongoing projects. We developed an optimization algorithm that prioritized projects by ‘net benefits delivered per dollar of public sector investment’, based on the data we collected. We then developed a plan to finance those investments, through optimal use of public and private finance.

We advised the government on allocating public funds between rural and urban water sectors, and on improving urban water utilities so that they could self-finance priority projects. We also trained government officials to use the investment planning methodology and model.

Impact

The investment plan guided development of the Malawi Second National Water Development Project. The number of people with access to improved water services in the areas served by the project increased from 718 580 people in 2012 to 2 228 500 people in 2015 (210 percent).