Annex 1
INTRODUCING WSUP
Over one billion people worldwide live without
clean, safe drinking water, and over two billion without basic
sanitation.
WSUP—Water and Sanitation for the Urban
Poor—exists to help change that. To provide the water and
sanitation that the rest of us take for granted.
Working in poor urban areas, WSUP is an innovative
organisation that brings together local and global expertise to
provide sustainable water and sanitation solutions for poor communities.
Why is WSUP needed? The figures speak for themselves.
Conventional approaches have failed to reach the poorest people
effectively or quickly enough—especially in urban areas.
WSUP takes a new approach.
We work with local communities right from the
start of every project. And the partnership continues throughout
the whole process.
Our mandate is to support local service providers
around the world to deliver affordable and sustainable water and
sanitation services to poor people in urban communities.
WSUP itself is a partnership—between public,
private and civil society organisations—and provides a new
model that engages businesses and communities to achieve real,
meaningful and practical solutions. It is a not-for-profit organisation.
WSUP's members each contribute their particular
skills and experience, pooling their strengths for greater effectiveness
and reach.
The Millennium Development Goals call for
the number of people living without access to water and sanitation
to be halved by 2015.
WSUP can make a major contribution to that goal.
WSUP projects proceed in two phases:
— A development phase, where WSUP
and local partners analyse and assess the local situation, and
design solutions. WSUP attracts and invests donor funds to make
this process as open, involving and effective as possible.
— An implementation phase—led
by a local service provider—where the project is made into
reality. Although the operation is locally managed, WSUP maintains
a central involvement in this phase, to ensure that the principles
of community involvement and sustainable solutions are always
followed.
Our commitment to open and accountable partnerships
and to sustainable and technically robust solutions makes us an
effective and forward-looking choice for investing in the lives
of the urban poor.
WSUP works with urban communities worldwide,
wherever water and sanitation are badly needed and where we can
make a difference. We welcome invitations from any city anywhere
in the world where we might be able to help.
WSUP—leading edge, creative, cooperative,
sustainable solutions to one of the world's greatest problems.
HOW WSUP WORKS
WSUP's mission—to provide water and sanitation
services to poor people in urban areas—is centred on partnership.
There are great benefits in the partnership approach for all stakeholders:
consumers, local service providers, local NGOs, donors and the
private sector. The most important stakeholders—urban poor
people themselves—gain access to lasting water and sanitation
services, and actively participate throughout the project.
IDENTIFYING THE
NEED
WSUP looks for urban areas where we can make
a significant impact on water and sanitation.
To meet our 2008 goal of reaching 1.0 million
people, we need to complete around 15 projects.
To find the right 15, we will screen an estimated
70 project opportunities.
With £5 million already committed from
external funders and members, WSUP plans to raise an additional
£5 million for project identification, planning and design—and
a further £56 million for infrastructure. Our first project
is due to enter implementation in 2007.
For every potential project, we follow our WSUP
Project Selection Criteria.
DESIGNING SOLUTIONS
WSUP's driving force is our work with local
partners to provide safe water and basic sanitation to poor urban
communities. From the outset, the focus is on involving local
people, so that they define the needs and own the ideas, the actions—and
the solutions.
WSUP works directly with Local Service Providers
to design, develop and implement effective solutions. We drive
and facilitate every stage in the process, ensuring that the people
we are working for get the safe water and basic sanitation they
need and want.
Through our members and local partners, WSUP
provides access to an extraordinarily broad and deep pool of expertise
relevant to water and sanitation, including community empowerment,
operations, environmental protection, hygiene education, management,
technology, engineering, infrastructure, funding and design.
Designing solutions . . .
WSUP's Design Principles are followed closely
throughout the design phase.
FROM IDEAS
TO REALITY
When the design phase is complete, the solution
is presented to potential funders and we assist the Local Service
Provider to secure the funds to start work.
WSUP is committed to the delivery of solutions
by and for local people. In most cases, this means that management
of the practical implementation of the project passes to the Local
Service Provider.
Even after the implementation is tendered out
by the Local Service Provider, WSUP remains closely and influentially
involved. On behalf of our partners—most especially local
people—we guide the implementation process, ensuring that
the principles and details of the solution are tightly followed.
WSUP aims, with its partners, to reach 1.0 million
people by 2008 and 4 million people by 2015. Can you help us achieve
that vision?
WSUP Project Selection Criteria
— Local service provider, communities
and the municipality express a clear demand for the project and
wish to work with WSUP.
— There are strong local NGOs
as further potential partners.
— The project will reach at least
70-100,000 users.
— A WSUP member country office
is willing and able to work with the private sector.
— The municipality is committed
to pro-poor service provision and welcomes community participation.
— There is donor interest in funding
the project.
— The expertise required is available
in WSUP's pool of expertise.
— It is technically feasible to
develop an affordable service.
— Any land tenure issues are manageable.
WSUP Membership
WSUP is an open partnership. We welcome any
organisation which feels it can bring skills, resources and ideas
to the challenge of providing water and sanitation to the urban
poor of the world.
NOT-FOR-PROFIT
ORGANISATIONS
WSUP's members from the not-for-profit sector
seek to scale up their contribution to the challenge of urban
water and sanitation solutions through practical partnerships
with the private sector. They broaden their knowledge of operational
and technical skills applicable to urban areas. They ensure that
the expertise provided by WSUP is truly demand driven and tailor-made
for each project situation.
PRIVATE SECTOR
WSUP's private sector members are not motivated
by commercial interest in the projects. Instead they provide their
most valuable resource: people with skills, experience and know-how
in water and sanitation. And their expertise is provided to the
projects at cost or in kind. Our members are seeking to move beyond
traditional corporate responsibility mechanisms—and to provide
their staff with opportunities to dedicate some time to projects
that directly contribute towards a better life for poor people
in urban areas. And for local private sector partners, business
cannot thrive in societies that thirst or have poor health.
WSUP Design Principles
WSUP follows a set of key design principles,
which define our approach and reflect our values:
— The process is driven by local
needs, demand and participation.
— The proposed solution is effective,
affordable and meets the needs of the poor.
— Water is a right for all people,
and its provision needs to be democratically accountable at all
times. Therefore WSUP neither advocates nor promotes privatisation.
— All the relevant aspects of
the situation are addressed: social, technological, regulatory,
environmental, management, financial, sustainability and governance.
— WSUP projects should aim to
stimulate growth of the local supply chain.
— All private sector expertise
is provided at cost or in kind.
— Hygiene education is a key component
of all WSUP projects.
October 2006
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