This paper presents the findings of one of two country case studies conducted as part of a broader
project entitled ‘Analysing the governance and political economy of water and sanitation service
delivery’ commissioned by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The objective of the
research project is to develop the utility of political economy analysis (PEA) for the water supply and
sanitation (WSS) sector, with a focus on improving the operational impact of DFID (and other donor)
country programming.
While the objective of the case study is therefore to inform the development of DFID’s approach to
sector-level political economy analysis, the paper and the research that underpins the paper have been
undertaken with the primary goal of working with the staff of the DFID-Vietnam country office to think
through the implications of a problem-driven political economy analysis approach for addressing the
issues encountered in their work.
Extensive consultation with the DFID-Vietnam country office resulted in the conclusion that one of the
main conundrums faced by DFID staff working on issues of WSS is the simultaneous presence of
persistently disappointing outcomes in the rural sanitation subsector under the current policy paradigm
and the limited uptake at scale of a number of seemingly effective ‘innovative approaches’ that have
been piloted with donor support. This puzzle is particularly salient given the country’s overall
development achievements and specifically given achievements within the sector in increasing access
to urban sanitation and rural and urban water supply.