Using results based financing and adaptive programming to improve water service delivery in rural Tanzania

The Government of Tanzania, through the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and with financial support from DFID Tanzania established a ‘Payment by Results’ scheme (PbR) to create a performance based incentive program to engage local and national government actors to improve water service delivery and sustainability across rural Tanzania. The programme combined a frequently challenged results based financing model with an innovative adaptive programming approach to drive improvements in data and information management systems, updating and reporting mechanisms and operations and maintenance approaches. The PbR has just completed its second year and has already had a significant impact on update reporting rates, data integrity and quality, levels of local government engagement and inter-ministerial co-operation.