his evaluation assessed EIB support for the water sector outside the EU to determine what worked and what didn’t in terms of development outcomes and the contribution to environmental sustainability and climate action. The conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation informed the revision of the EIB water sector orientation and provided useful evidence for the development of a strategy for EIB Global.
The evaluation finds that despite delays EIB water projects are leading to the expected results. Projects were highly relevant, aligned to the needs of the sector and of strong technical quality. They made a positive contribution to environmental sustainability and climate action, for example, by introducing energy efficiency measures. Completed projects were being used as intended but tariffs and governance arrangements of the sector threatened their longer term sustainability. Development effects were evident but not optimised; with the EIB focussed mainly on the infrastructure construction, while relying on others working in the sector to tackle the necessary sector reforms.