Rural Water Supply Global Study - Case Study Writing Guidelines

The approach of the study is to bring together lessons from the field and carry out analysis to extract general principles or success factors.  Water and sanitation practitioners from all regions would be invited to propose case studies that meet the best practice selection criteria. Draft case study reports should be prepared by the end of June 2010 to be reviewed by the study core team.  Best practices validation field visits by region (including country RWSS stakeholders brainstorming sessions) will be organized from July 2010 to December 2010. Study findings will be presented at the World Bank Water Week in 2011.  Final report delivery is scheduled for November 2011.

Draft case study reports should be prepared by interested practitioner and send to Chrisophe Prevost (cprevost@worldbank.org) and Maki Tsumagari (mtsumagari1@worldbank.org) no later than April 30, 2010.

Best Practice Case Study Writing Guidelines

The case study report documenting the best practice is short (3000 words maximum) and have been thoroughly investigated in the field. It should provide clear data and strong recommendations about what is needed to succeed and how to implement the approach. The report comprises the following sections: Title; Introduction; Background; Description of the water (and sanitation) scheme; Evidence of Performance, Factors of Success and Lessons learned.

TITLE: Title should provide enough specific information about the essence of the scheme (program, project). 

INTRODUCTION: Introduction should be short – about 300 words. The introduction should justify why the case study is important and what it contributes to international knowledge in rural water supply. That will help you keep focused while you are writing the paper itself.  

BACKGROUND: Background information should put best practices in a proper context to judge their relevance. Keep the background short (about 300 words). This section should briefly present the country, area of implementation, timeframe, history, scale, and implementers. What is special about the best practice? Is it any different from other approaches in the same country/sector? Describe the unique features of the environment in which the project took place. Focus only on the features that have direct relevance to the best practices

DESCRIPTION OF THE WATER SUPPLY (AND SANIATION) SCHEME: This section should present all the features of the scheme implemented. A checklist for describing the water and sanitation scheme in this section is provided in appendix 1. If useful, provide information on how the scheme evolved over time and key lessons from previous scheme.

EVIDENCE OF PERFORMANCE: This section should provide all available information on the performance and impact of the case study, i.e., how it qualifies as best practice, where the population is consuming safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable water for at least 5 years. The selection criteria are that (i) the served population is consuming safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable water, and (ii) the scheme has been operating successfully for at least 5 years. Safe = free from chemical and bacteriological contamination; Reliable = continuous water supply; Affordable = the associated costs have been approved by users; Sustainable = the service is financially viable with suitable arrangements for asset maintenance, renewal and replacement, and it has a secure water source. Scheme = project, program, implementation approach.

To document the best practice performance, please use the checklist presented in appendix 2. Situation before and after the scheme should be presented clearly and if possible compare with situation outside the scheme area (covered and not covered). If available, provide appropriate monitoring and evaluation numbers and other relevant data to document the best practice indicators. If the best practice has been independently evaluated, include the major findings.

FACTORS OF SUCCESS: This section should present a clear and strong analysis of the key factors that contributed to ensure that the population of the scheme is consuming safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable water resulting in a significant impact on health. This is the most important part of the study case report. The study analysis will draw upon the section to identify the most common factors, inside and outside the water and sanitation, which contributed to successful water service management in rural areas. It is recommended to focus on a limited number of factors of success – about five is recommended - and substantiate the factors with examples. The factors of success do not have to be about the entire project, but may focus on a particular component or an issue within the scheme. Adjust your best practices background information accordingly.

A list of factors of success is provided in appendix 3. The review and analysis of the factors of success of all the best practices studied should allow the study team to identify the most common factors of success and draw some conclusions on how to support the RWSS sector according to context and country.  Please use the factors of success matrix (appendix 3) and provide based on your own analysis a rating of the importance of the factors listed in the successful rural water management service..Additional factors can be added according to cases.  In the text, each factors of success identified should have a specific and explicit title.

LESSONS LEARNED with respect to implementation: Drawing on the descriptions and analysis in earlier sections of the paper, this section should present the most significant positive and negative lessons learned during implementation, i.e., what was required to ‘enable’ the success factors, and conversely what were the barriers and risks that had to be managed. Focus the paper on a limited number of lessons learned – about five is recommended - and substantiates the lessons with field based evidence.  Suggest which of the lessons learned have general applicability for the sector, i.e., help guide implementation in other contexts, countries, etc. What are the conditions/requirements for repeating it elsewhere and what is required for scaling up these successful examples?  

ILLUSTRATIONS: Please attach photos, graphs, and tables (with captions and for photos, the source of the picture) that we can use to illustrate the paper.  It you have a related video, include it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Writers are only those who have significantly contributed to the paper. Include the current titles of the authors. Authors’ background info should be short (up to 50 words /author). Please include address, emails and phone numbers.  

REFERENCES: if available, please include key references (5 to 10 maximum) as well as link to useful websites.

ATTRIBUTION: You should give credit for material that is copied, adapted, or paraphrased. If you use other's words, you should put them in quotation marks and cite your source. You should also give citations when using other's ideas, even if you have paraphrased those ideas in your own words. If you adapt a chart or paraphrase a sentence, you should cite your source. (Paraphrasing is restating the author's ideas, information and meaning in your own words).