The AIP will support Member States to access transaction management services to assure impactful in-vestments in both infrastructure and nature management solutions for assuring water security; and improve-ments in sanitation and hygiene services delivery.
In order to be able to achieve the long-term goal of the programme, it is necessary to fully understand the economics of water in a country, river basin or region under consideration. Without this knowledge it is impossible to determine the value of proposed investments or their related costs and benefits. Therefore, it is unlikely that it will be possible to package the required finance for the investment.
Water Management and the provision of safe sanitation services, being a public good, rarely attract private investment, which explains – in part – the limited success of numerous initiatives for Public-Private Partnerships in the sector in Africa. Indeed a number of River/Lake Basin Organisations (R/LBOs) have in the past 10 years conducted relevant studies and developed investment plans, the implementation of which is still constrained by inability to attract investment. However, it goes without saying that inadequate provision of safe sanitation services has grave implications for freshwater availability, not to mention being a key factor in environmental degradation in Africa.
Based on the concept of economy-wide interdependence, the AIP will - through the programme components on SDG 6 investments; Resilience; Project Preparation and Financing; and Water Governance-revitalise ongoing activities of the water community in Africa to realise the Africa Water Vision 2025 and consolidate the achievements to-date of those interventions. By way of contributing to processes to deepen the impact of those efforts, the AIP will - through the programme components on Valuing Water; and Catalysing Change - focus its activities on responding to the three generally accepted bottlenecks in the delivery of the infrastructure needed to underpin economic growth and transformation in Africa, namely:
The Global Water Partnership (GWP) Steering Committee announced the appointment of Dr. Monika Weber-Fahr as GWP Executive Secretary, effective May 7, 2018. Weber-Fahr joins GWP after 20-plus years in the development field, with diverse experiences in creating and sharing knowledge across global networks and communities. Weber-Fahr succeeds Rudolph Cleveringa who is retiring.
The goal of the Africa Water Investment Programme is to transform and improve the investment outlook for water security and sustainable sanitation for a prosperous, peaceful and equitable society.
The AIP will strengthen the business case for investments in water security and climate resilience, and prepare bankable projects as instruments to stimulate transformative economic growth while addressing the root causes of migration, youth unemployment, and gender inequality. The AIP will promote innovative public private partnership models to unlock private sector investments in water, energy and agriculture as key pillars of Africa’s growth, development and employment creation agenda.
In the context of the project, thematic briefs were prepared on the gender dimensions in water management and on the role of CSR in the context of the water sector.
The briefs are available in English, French and Arabic as pdf files by clicking on the respective image below.
