• The Harmonisation and Alignment (H&A) agenda offers important opportunities for the water sector.
• The sector’s progress towards H&A remains piecemeal – with substantial differences between countries and within the water supply, water resources management and sanitation sub-sectors.
• Future efforts in H&A need to reach down to decentralised levels of government, in tandem with strengthening implementation capacity.
Katharina Welle, Alan Nicol and Frank van Steenbergen