The first round of Country Status Overviews (CSO1) published in 2006 benchmarked the preparedness of sectors of 16 countries in Africa to meet the Millenial Development Goals (MDGs) based on their medium-term spending plans and a set of success factors selected from regional experience. Combined with a process of national stakeholder consultation, this prompted countries to ask whether they had those success factors in place and, if not, whether they should put them in place. The African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW) commissioned the production of a second round of Country Status Overviews (CSO2s) to better understand what underpins progress in water supply and sanitation and what its member governments can do to accelerate that progress across countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The analysis aims to help countries assess their own service delivery pathways for turning finance into water supply and sanitation services in each of four subsectors: rural and urban water supply, and rural and urban sanitation and hygiene. The CSO2 analysis has three main components: a review of past coverage; a costing model to assess the adequacy of future investments; and a scorecard which allows diagnosis of particular bottlenecks along the service delivery pathway. The CSO2 s contribution is to answer not only whether past trends and future finance are sufficient to meet sector targets, but what specific issues need to be addressed to ensure finance is effectively turned into accelerated coverage in water supply and sanitation. A synthesis report, available separately, presents best practice and shared learning to help realize these priority actions.