Memorandum submitted by the Global Water
Partnership (GWP)
SUMMARY OF
KEY POINTS
1. The GWP proposes the following four issues
for consideration by the International Development Committee in
their inquiry into water and sanitation. Analysis of these points
and an outline of the GWP are given below:
— Leadership on water resources
management: At the policy level, DFID should recognize that
water is central to development and assume a leadership role on
effective water resource management. DFID should take the lead
on any water resource issues and climate related activity for
developing countries, working with but not led by EC (DG Environment)
or sectoral ministries (eg DEFRA).
— Strengthen DFID Capacity:
DFID should strengthen the water advisor capacity in DFID Country/Regional
offices to ensure expertise is available to cover water issues.
Provide targeted short term expertise to the central Water Unit,
in particular on policy matters related to Water Resources Management.
— Use effective instruments:
An assessment should be made of the effectiveness of different
aid instruments for water, in particular to find out whether budget
support has any beneficial impact on meeting the water and sanitation
challenges. Similarly, support to NGOs should be more rigorous
with a review of current policy and practice to ensure transparency
and that spend matches DFID policy priorities and directly benefits
the DFID partner countries.
— Match solutions to local
situations: DFID should continue to support all means to improve
both management of the resource and services. For services, public,
private or mixed operators should be considered on the basis of
the specific local situation rather than any predetermined ideological
basis. In general this suggests not promoting models such as the
EU WFD which is likely to be inappropriate in poorer countries.
BACKGROUND TO
THE GWP
2. Global Water Partnership, formed in 1996,
is an international network that aims to help countries to improve
water resources management. It has a small Secretariat, with international
organization status, 14 regional water partnerships and over 60
country water partnerships covering most parts of the developing
world.
3. Countries do not develop if their water
resources are not properly managed and developed. The signs of
mismanagement or lack of management manifest themselves in the
inability of countries to attract investment, inefficient use
of water in agriculture, pollution of existing sources, depletion
of groundwater, and strong negative impact on the health of populations
and the working lives of women. Without water, no life. Without
water resource management, no sustainable development.
4. GWP has been influential in promoting
better management of the increasingly scarce and vulnerable water
resources in developing countries. As an example a recent communication
from our regional water partnership in East Africa is given below.
This illustrates our development approach, which can be summarised
as "facilitation" or helping countries to help themselves.
At the global level GWP has promoted better water governance and
planning and developing innovative financing for water infrastructure.
The GWP Technical Committee (TEC) publications are used throughout
the world as guidance material on Integrated Water Resource Management
in its many aspects. For example, GWP has carried out dialogues
on water governance in over 30 countries to promote reforms and
better stakeholder participation to ensure "ownership"
and better decision-making. In addition, GWP established the World
Panel on Financing Water for All, chaired by the ex Managing Director
of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mr Michel Camdessus.
The Camdessus report has been very influential in promoting access
to finance for water especially in its focus on the sub-sovereign
level and GWP has built awareness of these ideas in China, South
East Asia, Central America and, next year, in East and West Africa.
5. GWP works in partnership with many other
organisations and donors and DFID is a key supporter together
with 12 other bilateral donors, in particular Sweden, Netherlands,
Denmark, Germany and Canada.
COMMENTS ON
DFID
6. It is our view that DFID has traditionally
provided significant support to water and sanitation for many
years, not only in the provision of funding but also in its influence
on development policy. However, there was a period from 2001 to
2004 when DFID downgraded water and had only a skeleton central
unit covering water. This had a serious adverse impact on DFID's
capacity to contribute to water and sanitation at a time when
most parts of the world was, justifiably, becoming increasingly
concerned about the state of the world's water and the importance
of providing water supply and sanitation services to those presently
without adequate services. Major events over the last six years
have highlighted the plight of the world's water resources and
the suffering of billions of people from a lack of even the most
basic services.[164]
As water is critical to meeting all the MDGs (whether poverty,
hunger, education, health or environment related) the recent strengthening
of the Water, Sanitation, Energy and Transport Unit is welcome
and will hopefully allow DFID to catch up lost ground.
Leadership on Water Resources Management
7. Whilst recent efforts have been made
by DFID to help meet target 10 (Goal 7) of the Millennium Development
Goals[165]
(MDGs) and the target on sanitation[166]
set at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, more
should be done to address the specific issue of water resources
management (WRM). Integrated Water Resources Management is essential
to solve all the MDGs; water for food and for alleviating poverty
(Goal 1), to address health and child mortality (Goal 4), to get
girl children into school requires adequate water and sanitation
facilities (Goal 2), protecting ecosystems and preventing pollution
and pollution related illness (Goal 7).
8. Adapting to and reducing the impacts
of climate change and vulnerability of the poor to climate variability
is essential. Many industries are becoming concerned with water
as a brake on economic development and the future of their businesses.
It was noticeable at a major DFID water meeting on 7 February
2006 the Secretary of State for International Development faced
most questions on management of water resources and not on provision
of services. This is because concern is increasingly turning to
complex governance and resource issues whilst provision of services
is mainly a matter of applying well understood techniques; there
is a role for DFID to become a leader on water governance.
9. The solutions and options open to many
developing countries and the challenges they face are very different
from the richer OECD countries. DFID should therefore promote
studies and policies that take account of the weak financial and
human capacity that exists in developing countries and not promote
unrealistic solutions. DFID should thus take the lead in relation
to support for developing countries on water issues. For example,
whilst the EU Water Framework Directive and other EU water legislation
may be appropriate for EU member states it should not be promoted
as a model for less developed countries and DFID, not the EC DG
Environment or DEFRA should lead on development matters.
Strengthen DFID Capacity
10. Water is a complex issue cutting across
sectors and without dedicated expertise in country offices the
issue is not adequately covered and other simpler sectoral issues
are given priority (eg roads). In our view DFID should do more
to strengthen the water advisor capacity in DFID Country and Regional
offices which have the main responsibility for bilateral aid.
The central Water Unit should be reinforced through provision
of strategic inputs from water policy experts so that it is at
the cutting edge development policy for water. In particular,
more focus should be given to water resources management as scarcity,
pollution and climate change increasingly impacts on economic
and social development. In this context DFID could make more use
of its partner organisations, such as GWP, that have an extensive
network covering most of DFID priority countries.
Use Effective Instruments
11. DFID is turning increasingly towards
providing development aid through budget support and it is questionable
whether this is suitable for solving the water challenges. Many
governments do not focus on water matters as there is no political
champion or natural home within typical sectoral ministries. Budgetary
provision for water and sanitation services and water management
are often not included in national budgets even though water is
always ranked in the top three concerns for poor people (according
to a World Bank report). More is needed to support prioritisation
of national budgets and the effectiveness of different aid instruments
so they can be used effectively for water and sanitation.
12. Most European bilateral donors now provide
considerable support to non-governmental organisations and this
can be beneficial to helping community level actions. GWP as a
DFID partner provides a neutral platform to bring together government,
NGO and private sector stakeholders in specific water issues in
a country or region and tries to improve governance from this
pragmatic approach. However, our experience shows that NGO abilities
and approaches are very variable. Even if well-meaning they can
undermine the policies of developing country governments as well
as those of DFID itself. There are many different NGOs and some
are purely advocacy oriented with endless campaigns that waste
time of DFID staff or worse militate against policies that help
the poor. Some may be more action oriented but lack technical
skills to be of practical help. There should be more accountability
for NGOs supported by DFID and they should be subjected to the
same requirements of transparency and accountability as any other
organisation so that there is clear value added.
13. DFID should review its present strategy
for support to NGOs and ensure it is focussed on development oriented
NGOs that provide constructive help to partner countries. DFID
should ensure that outcomes and spend are better monitored to
ensure synergy with DFID and partner country policies. This would
help DFID deliver its mandate and reduce DFID staff time and administrative
budgets wasted on responding to endless lobbying campaigns.
Match Solutions to Local Situations
14. Water is a local issue and few solutions
are uniformly applicable. DFID should increase support for water
resources management and continue to support all means to improve
services. For service provision public, private or mixed operators
should all be considered on the basis of the specific local situation
rather than any predetermined ideological basis. Without institutional
reforms water management and service provision will remain weak
and inefficient, and a low priority for investment. DFID should
thus support initiatives that improve governance systems thus
facilitating access to financing for services and resource management.
Aid should be used to leverage non-ODA funding thus reducing aid
dependency. With growing signs of support for water within aid
budgets it is important to back up any financial resources with
local capacity building programmes to ensure local people can
manage their own development.
15. We have tried to give a few brief points
on a vast and critical issue and concentrated on specific aspects
for improving DFIDs contribution. However, we would be pleased
to provide further evidence, including oral evidence, on a broader
range of issues related to improving water resources management
in developing countries.
164 International Conference on Fresh Water Bonn
2001; World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) Johannesburg
2002; Third Water Forum Kyoto 2003; UN Water Decade. Back
165
Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable
access to safe drinking water. Back
166
Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without adequate sanitation. Back
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