Dear Coalition members, partners and friends,
Greetings and welcome to the third edition of the Water Finance Coalition Newsletter for 2024! As you now know, this bi-monthly newsletter is an opportunity to share with you the ongoing initiatives carried out by the Water Finance Coalition, our internal news and upcoming events!
You will find, among other things, information about our upcoming quarterly meeting, an exclusive insight into a forthcoming research book on PDBs and water, details on the next major international events relevant to our Coalition and some reading recommendations.
Next Quarterly Meeting on October 1st
Thanks again to all the members that attended our last quarterly meeting in July, and in particular to PT SMI, FINDETER, ECOPSIS and the OECD for their presentation. All the documents are available in our email Follow-up on the 10th Water Finance Coalition quarterly meeting from July 17.
The next quarterly meeting of the Water Finance Coalition will be held on Tuesday October 1st, in two slots as usual. Invitations will be sent out shortly, keep an eye on your inbox!
This meeting provides a unique opportunity to explore new research on the history of financing in the water and sanitation sector in the Global South, with a particular emphasis on the potential role of public banks in achieving SDG 6.
We are also looking for two special guests to liven up our meeting and highlight the activities of our members. Contact us if you would like to be a special guest, propose an agenda point or a speaker: colsona@afd.fr and depaulad@afd.fr.
Upcoming book on Public Banks and Public Water Services in the Global South
Find an exclusive message from professors Thomas Marois, David A. McDonald and Susan Spronk who will soon release their book on public banks and public water services in the Global South (Routledge, open access book available online at www.municipalservicesproject.org in November 2024).
The fact that hundreds of millions of people around the world still lack access to safe, reliable and affordable water and sanitation is a tragic failure of global governance. And yet safe and affordable water and sanitation is one of the most achievable global challenges we face. What stands in the way?
A rash of intractable political factors are partly to blame, but perhaps the biggest challenges is that of finance. The most pressing needs are in the Global South, but high-income countries are also in serious deficit situations, with hundreds of billions of dollars a year required to meet Sustainable Development Goal 6.
Where will this money come from? This new book examines a range of possibilities, with a focus on public banks, particularly those operating at the national and sub-national level. With case studies from Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, this book provides the first detailed assessment of the potential for public banks to help address the global water and sanitation crisis.
Public banks cannot (and should not) be expected to resolve this financial challenge on their own but they offer a unique and transformative vehicle for addressing the problem. The most important lesson is that national public banks can provide large amounts of relatively cheap capital that is ‘patient.’ Our cases show long-term time horizons that match the physical, economic and environmental needs of water and sanitation infrastructure, much of which lasts for decades. National public banks also have localized expertise on the social, political and ecological aspects of water and sanitation that multilateral lenders often lack.
Another advantage of public banks is their potential to definancialize lending by rolling back the influence of short-term, for-profit financial motives. In doing so public banks can advance public–public partnerships (PUPs), which aim to promote shared public service goals through collaborative engagements, such as co-financing, knowledge sharing and capacity building.
The book also reveals that public banks can issue smaller-scale credits, providing supportive financing to communities and under-served areas that are otherwise overlooked. Lastly, our research illustrates how public banks persist as legacy institutions able to provide stable lending and technical expertise in ways that extend beyond shorter-term political horizons.
International Agenda
World Water Week 2024 (Stockholm)
The World Water Week 2O24 in Stockholm is approaching. This event constitutes a great opportunity for Water Finance Coalition members to meet and exchange ideas on how to progress collectively towards our water-related objectives.
All members present in Stockholm are welcome to join us for an informal dinner:
Date: Monday, 26th August 2024
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Luzette, Centralplan 15, 111 20 Stockholm, Sweden (close to the Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre)
Please RSVP by August 16th to colsona@afd.fr and depaulad@afd.fr.
Finance in Common Summit 2025
The Finance in Common Summit is an annual gathering under the FiCS initiative that brings together Public Development Banks from around the world to discuss issues and agenda of relevance to the role of PDBs in the reorientation of the financial system towards sustainability and to leave no one behind.
Save the date: the next Finance in Common Summit will be held from the 26th to the 28th of February in Cape Town (South Africa), co-organized by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA).
The Water Finance Coalition team is currently working on having a dedicated water session in the official programme –stay tuned on future progress!
Reading Recommendations
Technical Assistance and Capacity building for PDBs: Mapping and Qualitative Benchmarking. FICS.
The general purpose of this study is to improve the knowledge about TA and capacity building (CB) programmes for PDBs and collect quantitative and qualitative information in order to formulate recommendations on how to design and finance tailored TA to support PDBs’ alignment on SDGs and the Paris Agreement. The study therefore maps global TA programmes for PDBs (or to which PDBs are eligible), including providers, beneficiaries and processes.
Among the key findings:
M&E, impact assessment and project preparation rank as top priorities.
Lack of awareness among PDBs regarding existing TA offerings and/or high transaction costs to identify and reach out to TA providers.
TA is often perceived as donor-driven, tailor-made approaches.
A gap is identified in the provision of structural, sector-agnostic TAs disconnected from credit lines.
Better organization of knowledge transfer is necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of TA support.
Building the local consultant markets is essential.
The Water Finance Coalition acknowledges these conclusions and work actively to offer successful TAs for PDBs in water and sanitation. More information can also be found in our Water Climate Finance Toolkit.
The study published by the FICS Secretariat is available here.
United Nations System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation. UN Water.
The goal of this Strategy for Water and Sanitaiton is to enhance United Nations system-wide coordination and delivery of water and sanitation priorities in support of countries to accelerate progress on national plans and priorities, internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, realization of human rights, and transformative solutions to current and future challenges for the benefit of all people and the planet. Its aim is to fully operationalize inter-agency coordination, capitalize on reforms of the United Nations development system, and leverage upscaled water and sanitation action of United Nations entities to provide more strategic, effective, coherent and efficient support to Member States.
The five “entry points” of the Strategy:
Lead and inspire collective action (UN entities will make water and sanitation top organizational priorities and boost communication and advocacy).
Engage better for countries (leveraging support and mobilizing stakeholders)
Align UN system support for the integration of water and sanitation (integrated policy advice)
Accelerate progress and transformational change (unifying UN system support through the five SDG 6 global accelerators)
Account through joint review and learning (increase transparency and review progress on internationally agreed water-related goals through Member State-led platform).
Read the full report here.
Reminder
Express your interest if your organization would like to take additional responsibility among the Water Finance Coalition.
You can also share with us water-related news about your activities for publication in our next newsletter and social media.
Thank you for reading our bi-monthly newsletter. We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting on October 1st!
Best wishes,
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