“We urgently need to scale up initiatives like AIP in the vulnerable regions such as Asia and Latin America,” said H.E. Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa and Chair of the G20 during the inaugural Water Investment Summit that took place in August in Cape Town, South Africa.
In July 2023, H.E. Ban Ki-moon commended the AIP’s innovative approach and called on global leaders and international organisations to scale up the model globally.
Backed by an International High-Level Panel comprising current and former Heads of State and global leaders, the African Union’s AIP is implemented under the leadership of the African Union Commission and coordinated by the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa. The AIP aims to mobilize an additional $30 billion required annually to meet Sustainable Development Goal 6. Only $10-$19 billion/year is invested in water infrastructure
The AIP Water Investment Scorecard, implemented across all 55 African Union Member States and reported bi-annually to the AU Summit, provides a powerful accountability and monitoring framework to accelerate national investment programmes. In addition, the AIP’s blended-finance facility, now being developed to support 13 countries within the Southern African Development Community (SADC), demonstrates Southern Africa’s pioneering role in creating bankable, climate-resilient water investments, a model now being adapted for other regions.
Building on these achievements, the LAC Water Investment Programme aims to mobilise USD 20 billion by 2030 through the Global Water Investment Platform, led by the G20 Presidential Legacy Global Outlook Council on Water Investments, a global initiative launched by President Ramaphosa in August 2025 to extend Africa’s water-investment success to the rest of the world.
At COP 30 in Belém, Brazil, the Global Water Partnership (GWP) and partners showcased how the AIP has become the foundation for a Global Transformation Agenda on Water Investments. The session, titled “Showcase of Highlighted Results and Solutions – Global Transformation Agenda on Water Investments: A 20B LAC Initiative”, was co-convened by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), and GWP.
The dialogue built on momentum from the Regional Water Dialogues in Chile (9 October 2025), where countries such as Grenada, El Salvador, and Brazil engaged in early discussions. At COP 30, additional countries—including Chile, Uruguay, Barbados, and Panama—joined the exchange, with international partners such as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) underscoring the AIP as a replicable and scalable model for catalysing water investments in climate-vulnerable regions.
The official launch of the LAC Water Investment Programme is scheduled for January 2026 in Panama City during the Latin America and the Caribbean Economic Forum organised by CAF, marking a new chapter in the global expansion of Africa’s pioneering water-investment framework—born in Southern Africa and now shaping the future of water finance worldwide.