The African Union’s AIP International High-Level Panel on Water Investments for Africa, together with the African Water Facility, will launch the Africa Urban Sanitation Investment Initiative (AUSII) on the sidelines of the World Water Week in Sweden from August 25 to 29, 2024.
The Africa Urban Sanitation Investment Initiative will function as a new financing window for urban sanitation within the African Water Facility, addressing the sanitation challenges in African cities.
The facility, hosted by the African Development Bank Group, is the only project preparation and promotion facility solely dedicated to water and sanitation in Africa.
AfDB statement copied to the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) at communicate2develop@gmail.com, which is a development communication advocacy non-governmental organization based in Ghana, stated.
The CDA Consult is a Ghanaian-based consultancy firm that specializes in providing expert services in communication, development, and advocacy and aims to promote effective communication, development, and advocacy for sustainable social change.
Despite sanitation being a fundamental human right critical to public health, environmental sustainability, and overall well-being, Africa has one of the lowest access rates in the world.
According to the document, an estimated 779 million people on the continent lack basic sanitation services, 208 million still practice open defecation, and 839 million lack basic hygiene services.
The African Development Bank estimates that every year, the number of people without access to urban sanitation increases by more than 10 million due to rapid population growth.
The African Water Facility will, through the new sanitation financing window, mobilise and deploy financing, prepare bankable and investment-ready projects, and implement innovative and inclusive approaches such as the city-
wide inclusive sanitation approach, which promotes tailor-made sanitation solutions for neighbourhoods and cities.
Over the next ten years, the facility aims to provide 15 million people with safely managed sanitation services through 50 projects and attract $7 billion in additional investments.
The launch is open to African water ministers and representatives of donor institutions, observers, partners, development finance institutions, regional and river basin organisations, the private sector, and the media.
Speakers will include Dr. Beth Dunford, Vice President for Agriculture, Human, and Social Development at the African Development Bank Group; and Carl-Hermann Gustav Schlettwein, Minister for Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform, Namibia, and Chair of the African Water Facility Governing Council.
Others are Dr. Rashid Mbaziira, Executive Secretary, African Ministers Council on Water; Ms. Satu Santalla, Managing Director, Nordic Development Fund; Jumaa Aweso, Minister of Water and Irrigation, Tanzania; and Ravokatra Fidiniavo, Minister of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, Madagascar.
The rest are Jeff Goldberg, Director, Centre for Water Security, Sanitation, and Hygiene, USAID; Anton Jantunen, Sanitation and Hygiene Markets Specialist, United Nations Sanitation and Hygiene Fund; and Ms. Tina Kollerup Hansen, Senior Vice President, Danida Sustainable Infrastructure Finance, Denmark Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU).
The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) is organising the World Water Week, which is the leading conference on global water issues, held every year since 1991.
The theme for this year’s conference is “Bridging Borders: Water for a Peaceful and Sustainable Future,“ which will cover areas such as water diplomacy. As solving conflicts through diplomacy has become more complicated, the past may not be a good guide for the future.
According to the SIWI document available to the CDA Consult at communicate2develop@gmail.com, which is a development communication advocacy non-governmental organization based in Ghana, water scarcity,
pollution, overuse, and climate change increase uncertainty in already complex physical, social, and economic systems.
Other key topics to be discussed include transboundary cooperation, food and nutrition security, innovation and resilience, and governance.
According to SIWI, the role of governance is critical when it comes to defusing tensions and preventing conflicts from escalating. It is important to learn from experiences in different contexts and analyze how governance structures can be more dynamic, flexible, and participatory.\
By Francis Ameyibor
