Annex
ONE MONTH
IN THE
LIFE OF
GWP EAST AFRICA:
PROMOTING POLITICAL
WILL FOR
BETTER WATER
MANAGEMENT AND
SERVICE DELIVERY
IN EAST
AFRICA
September has been of tremendous significance
with important milestones and implications for future work for
the region, for Africa and for GWP.
16-18 September 2006, Meeting of the African Ministers
Council on Water (AMCOW) in Eastern Africa, Ministers and senior
ministry officials in Addis Ababa, supported by GWP East Africa.
The following decisions were made:
— Countries to deliver on a set
of issues arising from the AMCOW decisions and work plans.
— Prioritise further work on Governance
of Water as it is critical in determining not only physical allocation
among users but also setting priorities for investment, rules
for competing interests and equitable development. This has evolved
from the GWP programme for water governance, funded by the EC
that aims to improve outcomes and impacts for society.
— Take in account work on water
supply indicators developed under JMP and WSP; but specifically
requested GWP to "...deepen framework for sector wide
indicator system for water resources, and further, to support
countries and the sub-region identify how to localise these and
create appropriate national systems..." this will build
on work of the GWP Technical Committee and transform generic concepts
and tools into specific national and local context, in support
of government's monitoring and evaluation.
— East Africa Sub-region of AMCOW
to develop peer review mechanism similar to NEPAD to help mutual
assessment of progress in water sector goals.
— Prioritise work on water governance:
national policies, laws and capacity building for organisations
to ensure good use of resources, efficient maintenance of infrastructure
and equitable access for communities sensitive to their livelihoods.
Infrastructure Development Plans
The meeting noted that recently, G8 countries
confirmed the increase of ODA from 0.3 to 0.7% of GDP, and EU
Infrastructure Fund has been set up, but competition from other
sectors (power, roads, health, education, democratisation etc)
can result in no net increase in water investment unless clear
infrastructure development plans that have political support are
in place.
It was agreed that:
— East Africa Sub-region to develop
economic arguments on how lack of water infrastructure shocks
the economy and destroys long term gains;
— Utilise existing information
from World bank (Country Assistance Strategies for Tanzania, Ethiopia,
Mozambique; reports on climate impacts in Kenya) and UNEP drought
monitoring programs; and invite World Bank, African development
bank, EU and NEPAD to participate with GWP acting as co-convenor
so to help create a focus on developing actions eg through the
IWRM Plan GWP is supporting in several countries within the region;
— Contrast developed countries'
water security and that of Sub-Saharan Africa;
— Prioritise programmes that benefit
more than one country; or projects that have spill over benefits
in neighbouring countries;
— Consider past proposals, their
problems and see if they should be incorporated into present work
plans.
GWP Eastern Africa offered to coordinate a conference
between AMCOW Sub-region with Development Partners and the EUWI
Finance Working Group to consider financing of infrastructure
in February 2007 to enable review and adoption of infrastructure
plans at the next full AMCOW General Assembly Meeting. The Ministers
accepted and the Kenyan delegation offered to host the conference.
Preparation of National Water Sector Status Reports
In February this year, GWP Eastern Africa presented
to AMCOW a report on the status of water resource in the region,
including challenges facing the countries, initiatives in programmes,
reforms, laws and institution. Although adopted by the Ministers,
the report was only a start and lacked details as the countries
offered very little information and GWP Eastern Africa had to
rely on secondary information from a variety of sources.
Ministers noted the need and urgency for country
status reports as a pre-requisite baseline and directed AMCOW-TAC
to follow-up on this process, and develop a consolidated sub-regional
report.
20—21 September 2006. African Development
Bank, meeting on Monitoring and Evaluation, Tunis.
The meeting was well attended by key donors
of Africa Water Facility, UN agencies including JMP, and three
Ministers from Algeria, Uganda and Congo Brazzaville (which takes
over AMCOW presidency at the next meeting, probably in March 2007).
— The GWP paper on IWRM, monitoring
and evaluation indicators was very well received and constituted
the main thrust of the opening statement from AfDB.
— All the proposals and decisions
made earlier in the week in Addis (see above—peer review,
governance, infrastructure development plan, water status report)
were accepted by this meeting as key outputs for action by African
Water Facility and others.
— The results from JMP were found
to be insufficient in helping governments and donors assess how
far they have reached in meeting MDGs. The approach proposed by
GWP, of identifying economic, social and environmental impacts
against the targets and objectives of MDG was considered a promising
step forward.
— River and Lake Basin Organisations
are struggling to find a niche and the French government is trying
to help them using its other agencies like International Office
for Water. Since they are linked to INBO, maybe GWP can find how
to give technical or moral support in regions and countries.
Finally, the African Development Bank and Nile
Basin Secretariat signed a €480,000 grant for GWP Eastern
Africa to support formulation of an IWRM plan in Burundi. This
is only the second grant that the African Water Facility has given.
October 2006
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