African Water Facility

• Date of agreement: Special Fund, established May 2004 and effective December 2004
• Current volume of the fund: Euro 130 million
• Financial contributors: AfDB (Euro 31.4 million), Algeria (Euro 0.09 million), Australia (Euro 12.8 million), Austria (Euro 3.7 million), Canada (Euro 3.3 million), Denmark (Euro 4.6 million), European Union (Euro 11.2 million), Egypt (Euro 5.6 million), France (Euro 22 million), Norway (Euro 8.6 million), Senegal (Euro 0.1 million), Spain (Euro 12 million), Sweden (Euro 12.1 million), UK (Euro 0.01 million)

Background and Objectives

The African Water Facility (AWF) is an initiative of the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW). It is hosted and managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB). The overall purpose of the Facility is to assist African countries to mobilize and apply resources for the Water and Sanitation sector to help enable them to successfully implement the Africa Water Vision (2025) and meet the MDGs (2015). The AWF began its operations in 2006.

Areas of Focus / Sub-Sectors

AWF provides support in the following areas:

• Strengthening water governance by increasing African countries and regional organisations capacity to govern their water resources based on IWRM principles and cooperative arrangements;
• Meeting water needs through the preparation of programmes and projects that will attract follow on investments, and piloting innovative technologies and approaches that may lead to widespread adoption;
• Strengthening the financial base of African countries and regional organisations by attracting additional funding to the sector and ensuring more effective use of available funding;
• Improving water knowledge by increasing the capacity for informed decisions making to guide water development planning and implementation.

Target Beneficiaries

Central Government/Ministry or Agencies; Local Government/ Municipalities; NGOs/CSOs; Community Based Organisations (CBO); Regional, sub-regional and sectoral organisation (i.e. Regional Economic Organisation); Lake and River Basin Organisations.

Results and Milestones

66 projects, at a total investment of about Euro 79 million have been approved since the Facility became operational in 2006. They are spread across 50 countries and cover the following interventions:

• 12 projects relate to the implementation of national IWRM;
• 7 projects focus on the implementation of transboundary water resources development initiatives and programmes in Africa;
• 13 projects are small capital investment projects designed to attract additional resources or to introduce innovative technologies;
• 20 projects concern preparation of water supply and sanitation programmes/projects;
• 14 projects support information and knowledge management;
• Since inception, AWF has mobilized Euro 130 million from the European Commission (25.0M), UK (16.7M), Canada (12.9M), Sweden (12.2M), France (12.0M), Spain (12.0M), AfDB (11.3M), Norway (10.6M), Denmark (5.4M), Austria (4.0M), Australia (3.4M), Senegal (0.2M) and Algeria (0.1M)

Administration and Governance Structure

• Governing council: Determines general policy direction and guides the operational activities of the Facility. Composed of 13 members: AMCOW (5), donors (5) NEPAD (1) UN-WATER (1) AfDB (1), and chaired by AMCOW Minister
• AfDB Board of Directors: Responsible for the general operations of the AWF Fund including project approval, approving projects beyond Euro 2 million and delegating approval for smaller projects as noted below.
• AfDB President: Approves projects between Euro 500,000 and Euro 2 million.
• Director/AWF: The administrative head of the Facility, responsible for the overall management of the Facility. Approves projects valued below Euro 500,000.
• Coordinator/AWF: Day-to-day management of the Facility and supervision of staff.

Major Activities in 2011-2012 / Additional Resources Required

The main principles that will guide activities in 2011 are as follows:

• Focusing on strategic planning and refining of operational processes early in the year;
• Ensuring effective and timely implementation of the ongoing projects and expediting disbursements;
• Ensuring quality at entry in the development of new projects as well as quality during implementation for ongoing projects;
• Limiting the number of new project approvals in order to allow AWF to focus on project quality and implementation concerns;
• Ensuring leadership and involvement of AMCOW in AWF operations, and supporting AMCOW strategic initiatives;
• Mainstreaming gender and social equity in AWF operations;
• Documenting and disseminating results and knowledge emanating from AWF operations;
• Enhancing communications, visibility and outreach;
• Managing human resources and institutional concerns in this period of transition; and
• Mobilising additional resources for AWF operations from 2012 onwards.

While adequate funding for the 2011 operations is secured, the situation for 2012 and beyond continues to be a challenge, with no funding commitments yet made by any donors. As part of the ongoing preparation of the AWF Strategic Plan 2012-2016, the operational programme and associated funding requirements will be clearly defined over the next five years. This will be used to support an extensive resource mobilisation drive, starting with a donors conference planned for September 2011.

Experiences, Challenges, and Ways Forward

An independent Effectiveness Assessment of the AWF was completed in October 2010. The conclusions provide a concise overview of the assets of the AWF, the lessons learned and way forward.

“Over the last 5 years, the African Water Facility has developed into a successful institution, with many valuable assets. The most important assets are indubitably:

• Diverse portfolio. Close to 60 projects have been approved so far, with a diversity of innovative projects in many countries across Africa, with a particular strength in Transboundary Water Resource Management. Other areas of innovation include water sector M&E and urban water and sanitation services.
• Innovation and quality. The 8 project assessments that were part of this assignment reveal these AWF projects to be generally effective and are delivering stated outcomes, even if progress has been slow in some cases. AWF funded projects are commonly seen by other partners as innovative and focused on emergent issues.
• Sound management. To manage its projects, the Facility uses an effective operating system with strong financial controls anchored to an efficient institution (AfDB). This has been recognized in a recent evaluation commissioned by the European Union.
• Scaling up capacity. Some projects have already led to good proposals for larger scaled up projects, demonstrating an interesting leverage effect. This scaling up capacity is an illustration of the very purpose for which the Facility was established  mobilising more financial resources for the water sector in Africa.
• Support to fragile States. The AWF has taken advantage of its ability to provide support to post conflict countries, with projects in most of the socalled „fragile States” in Africa.
• Support to applicants. AWF provides valuable support to applicants during the project development process. This is recognised by the sector as a flexible, innovative, participative and unique way of preparing and appraising projects.
• People. Skilled and highly motivated staff contributed to AWF's success. A good sign of this is that except for top management, turnover is rather limited. These staffs are a very valuable asset to build on and keep on developing the Facility.
• Roots. AWF is an African based organisation with strong links with AMCOW and therefore the ministerial level of the water sector in all African countries. This role of the Facility in the water sector indubitably contributed to its success.
• Knowledge. The Facility has accumulated and produced substantial and valuable knowledge on the water sector and the potential for scaling up more promising approaches. However this potential is yet to be fully realized.

The key issue is how to build on these assets to maximize AWF's contribution to the development of the African water and sanitation sector. During the initial years of AWF's history it has naturally focused on developing a substantial portfolio of innovative projects, as part of its consolidation phase. The African Water Facility now needs to expand its staff numbers to be able to devote sufficient time and resources to activities such as support to projects being implemented, M&E and potential scaling up activities, in order to fulfill its many functions and be a high performing Africa wide project funding and support instrument.”

Technical Department and Task Manager
Akissa Bahri, Coordinator, African Water Facility
Tel: (216) 7110 3329

Partnerships and Cooperation Unit Focal Point
Khadidia Diabi, Principal Cooperation Officer
Tel: (216) 7110 3002