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Tom Roberts Chief Water Engineer

Water and Sanitation Department African Development Bank, Tunisia

Rural Water Supply & Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI)

An Africa-wide program

Strategy: Demand-responsive programmatic approach, partnership building, increased fund mobilisation, fast tracking, promoting the use of appropriate technology

Objective: 80% access to W+S to rural Africa by 2015 Targets: water supply - 271 million people improved sanitation - 295 million people

Goal: accelerate sustainable access to drinking water supply & sanitation

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RWSSI Framework Concept: to serve the marginalized rural populations Largest RWSS program in Africa Endorsed by African water & finance ministers at 1st Int’l

Conference on Rural Water Supply and Sanitation in Africa (Apr/2005)

RWSSI: Investment Needs and Financing Plan

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USD 10.4 billion

USD 4 billion

USD 95 million

9.7 billion USD

4.4 billion USD

0.0955

billion USD 5%

15%

30%

50%

Financing Plan

Communities Governments

AfDB Donors

Investment Needs

RWSSI Trust Fund mobilised Euro 117 million

Donors: Canada, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Switzerland

Some Achievements of the RWSSI program

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0

5

10

15

20

25

National

RWSSI

Program

Country

System

for NCB

Country

System

for ICB

No

Parallel

PIU

Informati

on for

National

Program

Common

Planning

Framewo

rk

Annual

Sector

Performa

nce …

Budget

Support

Annual

Sector

Dialogue

Compliance with Paris Declaration

RWSSI has: Mobilized about USD 5 billion

Progress (June/2011): 31 RWSS programs in 22 countries

Access to improved water supply - 33.5 million people, improved sanitation - 21.3 million people

Increased awareness of African governments and international community on rural WSS needs

Increased partnership around RWSSI

Supported annual stakeholder sector review

Low priority given to rural water sector

Weak capacity to implement & maintain, no supply chains

Weak country M+E systems

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No optimization of partnerships

RWSSI: Implementation Challenges at Country Level

Inadequate focus on long term development benefits

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Ownership - “the intended beneficiaries must have a direct stake and sense of ownership at all stages, otherwise projects will not be maintained or will become heavy, unwanted burdens.” OECD How do we perceive the poor ? How do we perceive ourselves ? How do these perceptions affect ownership and sustainability of the infrastructure ?

RWSSI Implementation Challenges - Paris Declaration

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The Beneficiary

A bundle of problems and needs Suffering from malnutrition and living in weeds Lack of sanitation Little education Poor living quarters No money for orders Unable to join a consumer society No access to modern technology How can such an aggregate of painful ordeals Be expected to offer a solution that appeals ?

Beneficiary, Mr Bauleni Banda

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The Champion

Rights – to decide on technology, content

of training programs, to have access

Responsibility – to think independently,

to generate knowledge, to work tirelessly

for the project to advance successfully

Implications – on sustainability, etc …

Protagonist, Mr Bauleni Banda

Decentralization • Increase support of decentralization policies more capacity for knowledge

generation and decision making at decentralized levels

Capacity Building • Build capacity in individuals (poor & wealthy), communities, & institutions to

decide on selection of RWSS technology and design of RWSS education and communications activities

Monitoring & Evaluation • Annual national conference to review the sector or rural sub-sector

increased availability of information leading to a common understanding, a more unified vision and greater distribution of decision making

• Establish and support existing M+E systems ability to openly compare performance over time by sub-sector + region; encourages greater external scrutiny by exposing RWSS sub sector budgets, leading to internal pressure to reform public financial management

The way forward: more focus on long-term benefits

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Mobilize more resources USD 9 billion : 2nd Int’l Conference on RWSS in Africa at 6th WWF, April 2011

Campaign for additional funding from traditional and new donor

communities (direct bilateral support, joint financing, NGOs, better targeted ODA transfers)

Mobilize Euro 300 million for the RWSSI Trust Fund

Increase focus on sanitation

Strengthen collaboration with development partners

Increase use of country systems Align RWSS to climate mitigation and adaptation terms

Enhance quality of programme preparation

The way forward: strategic focus

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Framework for Implementation, publisher African Development Bank

The Lab the Temple the Market, Chapter 4 by F.Arbab, publisher IDRC

Photo credits: Photos of Bauleni Banda on slides 8,9 courtesy of Duncan McNicholl, Malawi Water & Sanitation Team, Engineers without Borders, Canada

References (online)

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Thank you!