"Effect of Non-Revenue Water on the Operation of African Water Utilities. Case studies of Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire" and "Impact of policy and water utility management systems on the performance of water quality service delivery in Africa. Case study: Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso". These are the topics of the master thesis defended by Djalia UMUTANGAMPUNDU and Margaret Sima KIRONDE respectively, two master students at the Pan-African University Institute of Water and Energy Sciences (PAUWES) of Algeria in the Water Policy track. These presentations took place on Sunday 20th and Monday 21st September 2020 respectively through videoconferencing from Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

The choice of these topics, as Dr. Simeon Kenfack, AfWA Director of Programs put it, falls under the framework of AfWA's mandate which aims to support African water and sanitation utilities and stakeholders as well in ensuring that relevant policies, regulatory frameworks and innovative technical solutions are in place to foster performance improvement in water and sanitation service delivery.

Thus, the research study by Djalia highlighted the impact of Non-Revenue Water on the various key performance indicators of water utilities, while revealing the need for setting up policies and a consistent framework for the WASH sector management. Indeed, the wide array of involved stakeholders can hinder decision-making, overload operating costs and ultimately delay the access for all to water and sanitation services by 2030.

Margaret's research results unveil that success is possible in each managerial scenario (public-public or public-private), provided that relevant management policies are coordinated properly and implemented at national scale. The research study therefore invites decision-makers to put coherent systems in place for monitoring and evaluating water management policies and systems, which on their own are a sure guarantee to achieve Target 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals pertaining to water and sanitation.

At the end of their defenses, both students received congratulations from the international Jury attending the sessions from Algeria, Ethiopia and AfWA headquarters in Cote d'Ivoire, the location of the thesis supervision team. It is worth nothing that they carried out their research in a particularly tough context due to the Covid19 health crisis. The Jury unanimously awarded them the Master of Sciences in Water Policy.

As a reminder, Djalia UMUTANGAMPUNDU from Rwanda and Margaret Sima KIRONDE from Tanzania started their internship at AfWA in March 2020, and they have been working under the supervision of Dr. Simeon Kenfack, AfWA Director of Programs assisted by Messrs. Gilles DJAGOUN, AfWA Senior Water Program Coordinator in charge of AfriCap and Charles BOTI, PhD student.