Speech Delivered by the AMCOW Executive Secretary, Dr Rashid Mbaziira, at the 8th Programme for Infrastrusture Development in Africa
Session title: Accelerating Preparation and Financing of Transboundary Water Projects: Bridging Capacity and Funding Gaps.
Keynote Address: Dr. Rashid Mbaziira, AMCOW Executive Secretary
Ladies and Gentlemen, the session title “Accelerating preparation and financing of transboundary water projects: Bridging capacity and funding gaps” could not be better fitting for where the water sector on the continent finds itself in this moment in time.
The demand for capacity development and improvements in financing transboundary water management is defined by the role water plays in Africa’s ambitions for economic growth and social transformation. These ambitions are espoused by the African Union Agenda 2063, a key priority area of which is assuring water security.
For this discussion, I use the 2013 UN Water definition of water security, which is developing the capacity “… to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water:
- for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development,
- for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and
- for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability”.
In this context, our aspirations for growth and transformation are juxtaposed with the influence of water access and use on overall economic output. What emerges is that capacity and funding constraints in the water sector pose grave implications for the realisation of Africa’s development agenda. Challenges are invariably reported in:
- preparation of bankable projects at all levels,
- weak institutional capacities for project preparation,
- inadequate private sector investments in water; and
- the inadequacy of a compelling business case for investments in water that can catalyse sustained financing commensurate with Africa’s development ambitions.
The fundamentals of the required response can, therefore, be summarised into five key points as follows:
- Promoting a new narrative on water that recognises the full potential of water in the economy to further Africa’s future development needs. This narrative should foster an appreciation of the vitality of water in economic growth; job creation; and industrialisation.
- Strengthening the business case for water investments, as well as raising the profile of water in national and regional development planning in Africa. The economies of many countries in Africa are extremely vulnerable to climate variability and climate change as they are largely based on natural resources – water, land, energy, forests/ecosystems.
Insufficiency of investments to enhance human and institutional capacities; build infrastructure; and improve information systems to support water management exacerbate the difficulties. To overcome these challenges – and achieve the SDGs – it is imperative for governments, societies and the private sector to fully embrace the concept of environmental security. A paradigm shift in the approach to developing, utilising and managing Africa’s water and related resources is urgently required. - Water infrastructure development should be advocated for and promoted as a means to provide a service – which is water – to the economy in order to enable growth and development to happen. Water sector interventions, especially for such resource management functions as water storage and flood control, cannot therefore be designed and marketed from the perspective of ‘water sector development’. Rather, the approach to packaging them for investment should be centred on their eventual utility – from an economic perspective – in terms of providing water for food and energy production. This should be extended to the opportunities for employment and wealth creation: not to mention peace, social security, regional integration and political stability.
- Strategies to improve the investment outlook for water and related resources development will also benefit from the application of the principles for valuing water. The principles provide a guideline for determining the real value of proposed investments; the associated costs; and the benefits that can be expected. In essence, they serve the purpose of improving the appreciation of the economics of water in a country, river basin or region. The application of the principles of valuing water – together with targeted interventions to catalyse change – holds promise for delivering sustainable solutions for assuring water for energy, food and environmental security in Africa.
- There is an urgent need to apply integrated approaches – such as the Water-Energy-Food-and-Ecosystems nexus approach – to promote and facilitate investment led transboundary management and governance of water and environmental resources. The aim is to consolidate and capitalise on the achievements to-date of implementing the principles of Integrated Water Resources Management.
This is the background to the current drive, under the leadership of the African Union Commission, AMCOW and AUDA-NEPAD to revitalise implementation of the following ongoing initiatives:
i. establishing economic accounting for water as a discipline to, among others, improve the financing and investment outlook for water resources management in Africa;
ii. improving national-level capacities, including the use of earth observation and remote sensing methods, for collecting complete and reliable hydro-meteorological and piezometrical data in all of Africa’s 64 shared river basins;
iii. applying nexus perspective solutions to assure water, food and energy security in Africa;
iv. improving agricultural water management;
v. implementing the PIDA priority transboundary water and energy projects;
vi. enhancing use of wastewater and sludge, as appropriate and acceptable, for nutrient recovery in agriculture and bio-gas energy production;
vii. standardising regulatory frameworks for agricultural water management across Africa;
viii. developing and adopting legal, policy and institutional frameworks for the collection and treatment of wastewater to a minimum water quality standard before return to the environment; and,
ix. supporting Member States, R/LBOs and RECs to conduct water resources assessments as well as supporting them to monitor and manage groundwater use.
As an outcome from the 10th World Water Forum in May 2024 in Bali, Indonesia, Africa’s Common Position and Key Messages committed:
i. to align the post-2025 Africa Water Vision and Policy to the African Union Agenda 2063 and make the principles of valuing water the backbone of the action framework for financing its actualisation; and,
ii. to invest in institutional and human capacity development focusing on integrated information systems to support science-based decision making for climate resilience in the water and sanitation sector.
At the 9th Africa Water Week in October 2024, in Cairo, Egypt, the water community agreed on the baseline for formulating the post-2025 Africa water vision and policy. This is contained in the 9th Africa Water Week Communique on “Placing Water and Sanitation at the Heart of Achieving Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want.
Going forward, a key milestone of the dialogue process to formulate the vision and policy will be to convene the third African Implementation and Partnership Conference (PANAFCON-3) scheduled for 27-29 May 2025 in Lusaka, Zambia. The conference will pave way for Member States and partners to review the initial draft of the vision and policy framework for assuring inclusive and climate resilient water security on the continent.
Let us all actively engage to ensure that that post-2025 Africa water vision and policy framework motivates action on bridging capacity and funding gaps in the water sector in Africa.
I wish you a productive discussion and thank you!
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