At the initiative of the President of AfWA, Mr Abderrahim El Hafidi, the Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE) of Morocco initiated, on Thursday 4 April 2019, a meeting between national and international donors mainly based in Morocco and the African Water Association. This meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the 81st meeting of AfWA’ Scientific and Technical Council, brought together 9 potential financial partners as well as members of AfWA governance bodies (Executive Committee, Scientific and Technical Council and Executive Directorate) to discuss the financing mechanisms to build the capacities of WASH stakeholders .

The working session started with the sharing of ONEE's strong experience in terms of mobilizing fundings and cooperation for the water sector in Morocco. To allow donors to better know AfWA, the Executive Director, Mr Sylvain Usher,then made a presentation of the Association's missions and activities while stressing its representativeness in Africa (200 members representing 43 countries) as well as the impact of its actions across the continent (nearly 350 million indirect beneficiaries). He also focused on its evolution and perspectives.

Following the Executive Director, the Director of Programmes, Dr Siméon Kenfack presented 5 concept notes for which AfWA is currently seeking funding. These include: 1) the MALIWI project, which refers to learning and mobilizing investment through peer to peer partnerships, 2) the project for paradigm shifting in terms of innovative and inclusive sanitation models, 3) the Bi_WASH project to improve water quality, 4) the Geneva project for gender promotion and 5) the African Academy for Water and Sanitation project, which is one of AfWA’s key projects in the near future.

Discussions that follow highlight the donors' interest and their willingness to support AfWA in implementing its actions. Thus, the African Development Bank requested AfWA to make a grant request for its various projects for which it's seeking funding, bearing in mind the for the AfDB fiduciary funds. For World Bank, a request is to be submitted to the unit in charge of Africa. The French Development Agency (AFD) is ready to support AfWA in all aspects of access to climate and gender funds. At the commercial bank side, ATTIJARIWAFA and the Banque Centrale Populaire are willing to assist AfWA in structuring and identifying potential financing partners.

Despite failing to have concrete promises of funding, , AfWA appreciated the President's initiative and, especially, with the donor statements which, if turned into concrete actions, will help to increase its efforts to strengthen access to sanitation and drinking water for the African population and strengthen its leadership position in capacity building of water and sanitation operators in Africa.

Thus, it is the responsibility of AfWA Director of Finance and Strategy to regularly monitor these pledges so as to achieve the expected results.

The 9 financial partners attending the meeting were: the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the Spanish Embassy, the West African Bank, the European Investment Bank, the Delegation of the European Union for the Middle East, the French Development Agency, Morocco section, ATTIJARIWAFA Bank and the Banque Centrale Populaire.