a first dialogue event took place early january and brought together different ministries and public agencies with representatives of the private sector to discuss a first draft assessment based on the checklist and to identify possible ways forward more experience and institutionstrengthening measures are needed to expand ppp capacity so that it can make a real contribution to meeting the region s growing urban water service needs this is in light of its semiarid geography and socioeconomic characteristics including low income heavy reliance on agriculture and dispersed population in the rural areas in contrast to the generally high level of centralisation of other administrative functions water management is relatively decentralised and key functions are allocated to specialised organisations