**1.2 Methodological approach**

The paper has used a comparative case analysis method to discuss community water governance in Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania. The countries present a geographical diversity; Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa, Nigeria and Ghana in West Africa while Malawi in Southern Africa. All are part of Anglophone Africa. All except Nigeria have gone through water sector reforms and adopted mainly commercialization of water services. Whereas Kenya and Nigeria have non institutionalized community water management approach, the other three have institutionalized government driven community water management approach, with Ghana most vibrant. Tanzania and Malawi are cases of overwhelmed state projects, which are steadily giving space for private community water management interventions. Final the states form different categories of role of state in community water management. Whereas, Kenya demonstrates an Inspector/Prefect role, Tanzania and Nigeria are Mediator category while Ghana and Malawi are Benevolent States. We evaluated (1) the different sources of water for the communities, (2) The membership of community water organizations (3) the role of government in community water management and (4) The role of public private partnerships in community water service delivery. We conducted a desktop analysis of the interactions of the actors involved in community water management systems in each country ranging from source to distribution. Of particular importance was the role of the government in each of the activities and how that impacted on water access to the consumers and with what results. The fundamental question was whether or not community management improved water service delivery in the five African counties.
