A/66/255 terms of efficiency, it is also vastly more cost effective to invest in operation and maintenance than to rehabilitate a project after it has failed. 69 E. Decentralization and capacity-building 53. The long-term success of the realization of the rights to water and sanitation also requires investment in governmental and human capacity, particularly at the local level. Decentralizing responsibility for managing water and sanitation services may boost their efficiency, and thus their sustainability, while also enhancing transparency, accountability and sensitivity to local needs. 70 These attributes of decentralization, however, are not automatic and the central Government maintains an important monitoring role in respect of human rights. In particular, the central Government must ensure that the most marginalized and disadvantaged groups are prioritized, and adopt the necessary measures (e.g. through tied or earmarked transfers to local authorities), so as to avoid funding being diverted to, or captured by, privileged segments of the population or other sectors. 54. Local governments rarely have the financial or technical capacity needed to address the accessibility, affordability and quality of services. Decentralized responsibility for providing water and sanitation services is not effective unless accompanied by support to local authorities as they learn to modify tariff and/or subsidy structures, plan new projects or mobilize additional resources. There are, however, reportedly few resources available to support capacity improvement. 71 Local governments are not routinely assigned resources sufficient to pay for all of their obligations and few are in a position to raise the money themselves. One recent study revealed that only around one third of State expenditure on water and sanitation goes to local government budgets. 72 55. In order to ensure that they are fully complying with their obligation to progressively realize the rights to water and sanitation to the maximum of available resources, States choosing to decentralize control over water and sanitation must improve the efficiency and the efficacy of the process by devoting more resources to building capacity at the local level. Investments in capacity-building should focus primarily on two areas. First, States and international donors should devote more resources to supporting the ability of local governments to finance projects and expand services independently, while ensuring that resources are spent on those in greatest need. Not simply a question of giving local authorities more money, this may involve improving a local government’s creditworthiness and its ability to attract its own external funding. 73 56. Second, more funding must go towards improving the ability of local actors to absorb additional resources and to manage and deliver water and sanitation services. __________________ 69 70 71 72 73 18 Fonseca and others, “Life cycle costs approach for water and sanitation services that last”. Meera Mehta and Dinesh Mehta, Financing Water and Sanitation at Local Levels (London, WaterAid, January 2008), p. 45. Available from www.wateraid.org/documents/ plugin_documents/financing_water_and_sanitation_at_local_levels.pdf. UN-Water Global Annual Assessment, p. 46. Mehta and Mehta, Financing Water and Sanitation at Local Levels, p. 46. World Water Council, Enhancing Access to Finance for Local Governments: Financing Water for Agriculture, p. 5. See also World Water Council, Third World Water Forum and Global Water Partnership, Financing Water for All, p. 15. 11-44364