This report summarises the findings of a global review of Plan’s water supply and sanitation (WES) expenditures during three fiscal years – 2005, 2006 and 2007.

The review had three main objectives:

• Assess unit costs, cost-sharing schemes, and expenditure patterns
• Compare programme costs and cost-sharing schemes to those of other agencies
• Provide recommendations for improvements to Plan’s WES programme policies, practices, and expenditure tracking systems
  

and two phases:

• a global survey, which assessed expenditure data from 45 Plan programmes for three fiscal years 2005 to 2007
• an in-depth survey of WES expenditures in eight country programmes
  

 The review was based largely on financial data from Plan’s information systems, and its scope did not include looking at the effectiveness or sustainability of Plan’s WES interventions. 

The review found that Plan has become a significant stakeholder in the global WES sector. In the three-year review period, Plan spent an average of US $42 million annually on its WES programmes in 45 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Plan’s average investment per country was US $0.93 million, nearly two-thirds of that spent per country by UNICEF.

The report is the first step in a longer process, and the data from the review will inform and direct subsequent efforts by Plan to assess the cost-effectiveness of its WES investments.