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 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.
On 16 January 2018, India Water Partnership (IWP) in collaboration with TARU Leading Edge kick-started constructing rainwater harvesting (RWH) tanks with a demo project, at the Senior Secondary Government School in Village Garhi Harsaru, Gurgaon.
The final preparation meeting of the lead partners for the Africa Regional Process to the Eighth World Water Forum and the High Level Panel on Water (HLPW) Africa Legacy Initiative- “African Water Investment Program (AIP) was recently held in Pretoria, South Africa.
The GWP network used the 8th World Water Forum, the world's largest water-related event, to demonstrate the impact of its multi-stakeholder partnership on improving the way the world manages its water resources. GWP was involved in over 40 events during the week and many network Partners were present, as well as representatives of the global office and the GWP regions.
On Tuesday 16 January, a national stakeholder information workshop on the development of three Municipal Strategic Plans for public water supply and sanitation services in Mali was organized.
The Slovak Drought Action Plan that includes preventive measures in a number of areas, specifically agriculture and forestry, urban landscape, water management, research and environmental education, is expected to be approved in Spring 2018.
