The financial assessment and cost-revenue analysis was restricted to the activities of the private waste company, aiming at understanding the financial sustainability of this main service provision stakeholder in the SWM system of Bahir Dar. Other financial flows and important stakeholders such as the informal collection and recycling sector were not included in this analysis due to limited availability of data. Two cost categories were distinguished in the analysis, up-front investment costs – also called capital expenditures (Capex) – and operational expenditures (Opex). Capex are business expenses to create future benefit such as acquisition of assets like infrastructure, machinery, equipment or upgrading of existing facilities so their value as an asset increases. Expenditures required for the day-to-day functioning of the business like salaries, maintenance and small repairs fall under the category of Opex. This includes the annual depreciation of infrastructure and equipment by 20%, a figure used by the private waste company. Back-end costs (long term costs and externalities) were not considered in this analysis, since these costs are generally difficult to quantify and are most often completely neglected in the budgets by the responsible authorities, e.g. the budgeting for site closure or post-closure care, environmental pollution mitigation costs, etc. All monetary values are listed in US Dollars (USD), whereby 1 USD is 17 ETB (as of April 2011). To understand the processes and events that led to the current situation or context historical narratives, timelines and time trend analysis were used which were integrated as questions for the semi-structured interviews. Nevertheless the quantitative financial data collected represents only a snapshot in time and covers the 2-year period from July 2009 to June 2011.The site visit, interviews, and data collection occurred in Bahir Dar from April to July 2011. Analysis was conducted conjointly with data collection but then extended further over a period of one year after the site visit.