The establishment of such facilities at the national level could also be encouraged, as it can reduce transaction costs and tie more easily into domestic financial mechanisms outlined earlier. Beyond the setting-up of project preparation facilities, local expertise for project preparation should be strengthened, from project conceptualisation all the way down to design stage and implementation. They provide services based on a contract or license with the public authorities responsible for delivering services in a given region or country.6 They may be either domestic operators, which tend to focus on a single country, or regional and international operators, which provide services to customers in a broad range of countries. Small scale independent providers generally operate informally where no public services are provided or provided at low standards of quality,7 large-scale developers of both residential and commercial property often provide and operate water and sanitation services to their own developments thereby making a considerable contribution to a city’s infrastructure and service coverage.