The National Framework for Operation and Maintenance of Rural Water Infrastructure in Uganda (hereafter called ‘the Framework’) was developed by the Ministry of Water and Environment in 2019 with financial support from the Royal Danish Embassy and UNICEF. The objective was to develop options and standards for institutionally and financially sustainable operation and maintenance (O&M) systems for rural water supply infrastructure that are currently not adequately covered by existing management models.  

The framework is structured into ten sections that include: description of the proposed management arrangements whose principles are anchored on professionalization of rural O&M. There are also sections on financial management, including the various sources of funding for O&M and the governance & accountability of O&M funds are described. The last sections cover the cross cutting issues impacting O&M, key considerations in O&M, monitoring of the framework implementation by the various stakeholders and ends with the road map to operationalizing the framework. The framework has annexes on generating O&M cost prices & detailed roll-out of the framework. The performance & management contracts & other requisite documents & formats will be contained in a number of operational manuals & guidelines.

The Framework was developed based on extensive field investigations, consultations with different key stakeholders, and review of national and international literature.