The broader shift from ‘government’ to ‘governance’ has been seen from the 1980s in many Western countries, linked to the legitimation crisis’, by which an organization does not possess the necessary administrative capacity to achieve its objectives (Habermas, 1975). Part of this transition has also been in conjunction with neoliberal policies and greater reliance on the contribution of the private sector (Pierre, 2000). At one level, it has become clear that the government alone is not able to take on the full responsibility and development challenge of‘providing1 water supply and sanitation services to all citizens, especially in low-income settings (Franks and Cleaver, 2007; Jimenez and Perez-Foguet, 2010). This relates closely to the general change of governments' role towards policy setting and regulation, with the actual provision being carried out by non-state actors or increasingly decentralized or independent departments.