Under the leadership of Mrs. Robyn Bertholon, Regional Contracting and Agreement Officer, some executives from USAID West Africa Office paid a visit to AfWA Headquarters from April 23 to 24, 2019. This visit was part of the collaboration between both institutions involved since 2015 in the implementation of AfWA Capacity Building Programme (AfriCap).

The overall objective of this Programme is to strengthen AfWA's capacity to coordinate, formulate, adapt and harmonize WASH policies in order to improve sector performance in Africa in general and in West Africa in particular. After about four years of implementation, an evaluation was conducted and the satisfaction expressed has led USAID to engage discussions with AfWA for the extension of this programme for a further four years (2019-2023) amounting to USD 04 million.

While the activities of the first programme were mainly focused on West Africa, those of the new programme over the next four years will be open to other regions of Africa.

This USAID support, through AfriCap programme, will enable AfWA to better fulfill its mandate as the Pan-African Support Association for Water and Sanitation Sector Organizations to improve their performance in providing water and sanitation services to populations.

Thus, at the end of these two days of meetings, both parties expressed their satisfaction regarding the discussions and in particular on both the technical proposal and the budget. Recommendations made will allow AfWA to submit its full proposal by May 10, 2019.

It should be noted that one of the key outcomes of the implementation of the first phase of AfriCap programme was the development of AfWA Strategic Business Plan 2018-2022 (SBP 2018-2022). Thus, the extension of this programme will help facilitate the implementation of this business plan, especially the components on membership service improvement (knowledge sharing, development of peer-to-peer partnerships on several themes) as well as improving governance and management of the Organization.

 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.

Under the leadership of Mrs. Robyn Bertholon, Regional Contracting and Agreement Officer, some executives from USAID West Africa Office paid a visit to AfWA Headquarters from April 23 to 24, 2019. This visit was part of the collaboration between both institutions involved since 2015 in the implementation of AfWA Capacity Building Programme (AfriCap).

The overall objective of this Programme is to strengthen AfWA's capacity to coordinate, formulate, adapt and harmonize WASH policies in order to improve sector performance in Africa in general and in West Africa in particular. After about four years of implementation, an evaluation was conducted and the satisfaction expressed has led USAID to engage discussions with AfWA for the extension of this programme for a further four years (2019-2023) amounting to USD 04 million.

While the activities of the first programme were mainly focused on West Africa, those of the new programme over the next four years will be open to other regions of Africa. This USAID support, through AfriCap programme, will enable AfWA to better fulfill its mandate as the Pan-African Support Association for Water and Sanitation Sector Organizations to improve their performance in providing water and sanitation services to populations.

Thus, at the end of these two days of meetings, both parties expressed their satisfaction regarding the discussions and in particular on both the technical proposal and the budget. Recommendations made will allow AfWA to submit its full proposal by May 10, 2019.

It should be noted that one of the key outcomes of the implementation of the first phase of AfriCap programme was the development of AfWA Strategic Business Plan 2018-2022 (SBP 2018-2022). Thus, the extension of this programme will help facilitate the implementation of this business plan, especially the components on membership service improvement (knowledge sharing, development of peer-to-peer partnerships on several themes) as well as improving governance and management of the Organization.

"Financing, Cooperation and Capacity Building, Powerful Levers to Improve Access to Drinking Water and Sanitation Services in Africa". This is the theme that guided the 81st meetings of AfWA Scientific and Technical Council, held from 1st to 5th April 2019 in Rabat, Morocco, under the auspices of the Office National de l'Electricité et de l'Eau Potable.

At the opening ceremony, the Managing Director of ONEE, President of AfWA, Mr. Abderrahim El Hafidi, presented the alarming situation of access to drinking water and sanitation in the world, pointing out that 2.1 billion people, representing 30% of the world population, still lack access to domestic drinking water supply services and that 4.5 billion, representing 60%, lack safe managed sanitation services. Regarding Africa, he said that half of the people who drink water from unsafe sources live on the continent. He also pointed out that the coverage of safely managed drinking water services is only 24% in sub-Saharan Africa, and the access rate to sanitation services is 28%. Mr. El Hafidi then outlined ONEE's action strategy for drinking water and sanitation in Africa, mainly based on support and technical assistance for African water operators and the strengthening of their technical and managerial capacities to enable them to improve their performance for ensuring access to drinking water and sanitation to their users.

Morocco is a source of inspiration for the sector stakeholders, said Dr. Papa Samba Diop, President of the Scientific and Technical Council, in his speech. "There is so much to discover, so much experience to share to strengthen the capacities of the members of our Association which, for 40 years now, has been working to accelerate access to water and sanitation services for African populations". The STC President urged the 200 delegates attending the meeting to update themselves on technical and technological innovations to effectively address the needs of the population; he also asked them to focus on cooperation to reduce investment and operational financing needs.

The Minister of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development of Morocco, Mr. Aziz Rabbah, for his part, pointed to the paradox of water management that is unequally accessible on the continent. He invited the main stakeholders to find the best technologies to manage water, which is abundant in some places and scarce in others, while ensuring its quality. Talking about the conflicts between some African states arising from the construction of dams that impacts access to water for other countries, the Minister said: "we need technological solutions to manage these political conflicts; how this resource shared by many African countries can, through appropriate technological solutions, serve everyone without prejudice to other countries?". He called on delegates: "We need your managerial intelligence to find right technological solutions to resolve these political conflicts". On the issue of financing, the Minister said that traditional financing schemes, namely borrowing and call for tenders are obsolete and delay the response to people's needs; he invited stakeholders to adopt innovative partnership solutions between public-private-financial institutions that will enable a rapid response to the growing and urgent demand for access to water and sanitation.

According to Mr Mohcine Jazouli, Minister in charge of Financial Cooperation of Morocco, this demand "should continue to rise until 2050 by 20 to 30% more than the current level". Water stress directly threatens many areas in Africa; it is often due to the lack of infrastructure and many times the required facilities are expensive and cannot be handled by only one country, hence the need to "think about the development of new cooperation schemes to bring together all key actors, to pool countries' resources and initiatives to be able to meet this major challenge". In this sense, he called for "making sustainable and equitable access to water and sanitation a priority at the continental level".

Finally, Mr. Loïc Fauchon, President of the World Water Council, expressed his regret that water supply is lower than its demand, despite the stakeholders' constant efforts to make it available to all. Yet "Africa is a waterlogged planet", he added. He then pointed out the demographic growth as well as the increase of the living standards which "require increasing amount of water every day". Since the major responsibility of water operators is "to secure, treat, distribute and finally purify water", he suggested diversifying available resources as a solution to satisfy agricultural, industrial or domestic demand. Apart from pumping and transfer, Mr. Fauchon advocated for water desalination and water reuse, which represent " great sources of water for the future". Addressing the issue of dams, he acknowledged the negative feedback about their existence despite their absolute necessity. That is why he called on scientists and inventors to build new-generation dams that are more respectful of people, nature and ecosystems, which will not only make it possible to store water in a sustainable way but will also help to end local crises caused by the lack or low storage capacity.

It should be noted that the opening ceremony of AfWA 81st Scientific and Technical Council Meetings ended with the opening of the exhibition of hydraulic equipment service providers.

MASTER CLASS : PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND FEMALE LEADERSHIP

 CONTEXT

In line with its mission to promote exchanges and cooperation in the field of water and sanitation professional training, the African Water Association (AfWA) has been allocating efforts to gender mainstreaming since February 2016, with the creation of the African Women’s Network of Water and Sanitation Professionals. Thus, through its Scientific and Technical Council (STC) and its Specialized Commission "Administration and Management", the Association ensures members’ capacity building through master classes, symposia, training sessions, conferences or even field trips. In that light, the African Water Association has partnered with SOMAGEP SA/ SOMAPEP to organize a five- (05) day master class for a female audience on the theme: "Personal Development and Women’s Leadership" in Mali, from 29 april to 03 May 2019. The focus will be on the role and responsibilities of women and their ability to assert themselves as leader within a company through performance.

OVERALL OBJECTIVE

This training aims to provide participants with the key for improved self-confidence, for adding value to their skills and asserting themselves as women and leader in a company.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

The participants at the end of this training will be able to:

• Dare asserting their ambition to become a woman leader;
• Identify and clear the hurdles to women's leadership in a company;
• Increased assertiveness and marketing one’s skills;
• Build self-confidence, and learn how to assert oneself;
• Build their capacities and resources through an increased knowledge of oneself;
• Assert oneself as a manager without appearing aggressive or being cunning;
• Manage conflicts and tricky situations with collaborators;
• Set up an organizational management system;
• develop an effective team management system;
• to understand the organizational, social and cultural aspects related to team management.

EXPECTED RESULTS

After having participated in this Master class, professional women will be able to:

• Overcome difficulties they encounter while moving up the job ladder and be aware of key milestones for a successful and well-handled career management for a woman;
• Develop qualities such as autonomy and accountability;
• Develop their capacities and resources through increased self-knowledge and confidence;
• Position oneself validly and with confidence to access leadership positions within the water and sanitation utilities in Africa.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The target Audience shall not exceed 30 learners, and will specifically consist of water and sanitation professional women:

• Directors;
• Deputy Directors;
• Heads of Departments;
• Managers and other staff.

COST OF THE MASTER CLASS:

• Room rental fees, the coffee break and lunch are borne by potential sponsors.
• Costs incurred by media coverage will be borne by SOMAGEP SA/ SOMAPEP, which are the host utilities organizing the training.
• Participants to the Master class take care of their flight tickets, the expenses of hotels and food, except for official lunches or dinners offered during the training period.

TRAINERS

Trainers chosen and paid by the donors in agreement with AfWA, will be experts with required skills to carry out the master class. In addition to their resumes, the trainers will have to provide a curriculum (training program) for the Master class while submitting their application.

DATE AND VENUE

The Master Class will take place in Bamako, Mali from 29 april to 03 May 2019.

LANGUAGE

French and/or English.

The theme of World Water Day 2019 is " Leaving no one behind ".

Sustainable Development Goal 6 is crystal clear: water for all by 2030.

By definition, this means leaving no one behind. But today, billions of people are still living without safe water – their households, schools, workplaces, farms and factories struggling to survive and thrive. Marginalized groups – women, children, refugees, indigenous peoples, disabled people and many others – are often overlooked, and sometimes face discrimination, as they try to access and manage the safe water they need. This World Water Day, 22nd March, is about tackling the water crisis by addressing the reasons why so many people are being left behind.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, water is your human right.

Read more : https://www.worldwaterday.org

Started on Tuesday, February 19th, the joint Africasan 5 / FSM 5 conference ended on Thursday, February 21th, 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa with a call for action issued to governments and other stakeholders in the sanitation sector. Co-organized by the African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW) and the Alliance for Sustainable Sanitation (SuSanA), the conference addressed the theme: "Transforming sanitation in Africa: Accelerating progress towards the Ngor commitments to achieve the SDGs".

This conference was attended by about 1,500 participants from all over the world, including a strong delegation from AfWA. They were all committed to continuing advocacy mission and sharing best practices and innovations to improve feacal sludge's management and help meet the needs of 4.5 billion people who lack access to sustainable sanitation services. During the 3-day meeting, industry professionals, governments, decision-makers, public services, development partners, investors, industrialists and service providers had the opportunity to work together to coordinate, develop and share their knowledge to provide accessible and achievable solutions on a continental scale that would transform the sanitation environment in Africa.

The conference focused on practical solutions to sustainably manage the entire chain of autonomous sanitation services, including toilet, storage, emptying, transport, treatment and valorization of by-products, as an essential component of urban sanitation services at the urban level.

715 stakeholders from the 5 beneficiary countries (Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Uganda, Cameroon and Zambia) trained on non-sewer sanitation and faecal sludge management, 75 sanitation stakeholders received by mentors (Office National de l'Assainissement du Sénégal (ONAS) and Ethekwini Municipality of Durban - South Africa) to learn best practices during the various benchmarking missions in Dakar and Durban; 05 strategic urban sanitation plans focused on non-sewer sanitation systems, which set out the vision and actions to be implemented within 3 to 4 years to improve the state of non-sewer sanitation developed, and in which identified bankable projects have been spelled out, 01 Mayor's forum dedicated to sanitation organized during AfWA’s 19th Congress in Bamako, dozens of emptiers from 19 African countries mobilized to create a pan-African association of emptiers, a favourable environment with government services as well as private emptying operators aware of the complementarity of their actions.

These are some of the positive outcomes presented during the final evaluation workshop of the RASOP-Africa project (Reinforcing capacity of sanitation operators through peer to peer learning partnerships), funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), which took place on 15 and 16 February 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa, prior to the joint FSM5/Africasan 5 Conference. More than forty participants, implementation stakeholders and current and potential partners took part in this workshop to assess the project implementation process and learn from it. During 2 days, they reviewed, through a so-called "market" poster session, a panel session and groups’ works, the results obtained, including the challenges faced and lessons learned since the beginning of the project in 2015 till its end in 2018. They also identified the factors that may or may not contribute to the achievement of results, proposed fundraising strategies to implement strategic urban sanitation plans in mentee cities, and discussed policies focusing on service delivery to vulnerable groups and involving women in sanitation, as well as the selection criteria for new mentor and mentees cities for the new AfWA -BMGF investment.

On behalf of all project participants, the Deputy Mayor of Yamoussoukro (Côte d'Ivoire), Mr Yaoura Konan, thanked AfWA and BMGF for the implementation of the RASOP-Africa project, acknowledged the positive outcomes and noted with satisfaction, the commitment of all stakeholders towards inclusive sanitation, with the participation of the private sector, women, authorities and the communities. He also stressed the "need to review the institutional framework, a pro-poor policy in sanitation and the involvement of women".

For Dr Kenfack, AfWA’s Director of Programmes, the Association has benefited greatly from the implementation of the RASOP-Africa project, particularly in terms of the improvement of its governance and visibility in the sanitation sector, reinforcing its position as strategic partner for the development of CWIS in the continent. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation representative, Danielle Pedi, who attended the workshop, was pleased with the results achieved. She congratulated AfWA for all the work done and for the professionalism shown in the implementation of the RASOP-Africa project. She expressed satisfaction with the real results achieved and the significant impact in cities. She then invited the beneficiaries to share their experiences in other countries, before announcing: "our Foundation has taken the decision to reinvest again in the African Water Association, to continue the sanitation work".

In order to promote the professionalization of the emptying profession, defend their rights, improve their working conditions and give a better face to sanitation in Africa, the associations of emptiers from African countries have decided to group together in a continental association called: Pan African Association of Actors for non-sewer Sanitation (PASA). PASA was launched on Sunday 17 February 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa, in the presence of about forty emptying associations’ representatives, from 19 French and English-speaking countries in Africa. This launching ceremony was organized prior the AfricaSan 5/FSM5 conference, which took place from 18 to 22 February 2019 in Cape Town.

During the ceremony, Mr Ibra Sow, President of the Senegalese Sanitation Actors’ Association (AAAS), thanked AfWA and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for their high support in the process of creation of their Association . He expressed his satisfaction with the strong mobilization of his peers at this meeting, expressing his pleasure of being with them, the precursors of such an organization, which now has a voice on sanitation issues on the continent. "we have decided to think big, we have decided to set our minds in motion, we have decided to put our experiences into practice, because the vision we have of this sector is neither partial nor fragmented, it is global and complete," he said. He then urged his colleagues to change their perception of the emptying profession: "we are not only those who talk about sanitation problems, but rather, those who propose solutions, we are among the solutions to sanitation problems" he hammered.

Mr Sylvain Usher, Executive Director of AfWA, was also pleased with the creation of the Association, which filled a major gap in the sector; however, he warned that "the hardest part is not setting up an association, the hardest part is making it work to achieve the objectives for which it has been created". He then presented the alarming sanitation’ situation in Africa before saying: "Africa relies on you"; and in order to move forward, he invited PASA to sign a memorandum of understanding with AfWA to jointly initiate collaborative actions and receive possible support.

The representative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr Brian Aborgast, Director of WASH Team, expressed the wish that APAA would effectively contribute to improving the conditions of its members so that they could offer quality services to the population. He reminded them of their essential role in the sanitation value chain and invited them to grow the association by continuing to raise awareness in countries where there are not yet an emptier’s association and which are therefore not members of PASA. It should be noted that the creation of the Emptyers' Associations was facilitated by the African Water Association as part of the implementation of the Capacity Building of African Sanitation Operators through Peer Learning Partnerships (RASOP-Africa) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.