The Government of Rwanda, spearheading an African Union-led initiative, and the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group have signed an agreement aimed at providing at least €50 million (approx. R732 million) within an Africa-wide resource mobilisation initiative. The initiative will finance improved access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in Africa.

The Kigali Action Plan (KAP) aims to improve the livelihoods of five million people in 10 African Union Member States, including eight fragile states. The plan intends to mobilise a part of the required funds by championing water and sanitation projects in Africa through a crowd funding platform.

 

Meeting the MDGs

The KAP initiative is a response to the inaugural African Water and Sanitation Report submitted by the African water and sanitation ministers to the AU Assembly in January 2014. The report indicated that Africa will miss the MDG targets for water supply and sanitation by gaps of 16% and 22% respectively. It also showed that expenditure was below requirements and highlighted the need to address tissues hindering the implementation of Africa’s commitments towards water and sanitation.

The plan provides the combination of the much needed political leadership, commitment and innovation required to deliver the Water and Sanitation MDGs. It also focuses on the implementation of direct action at community level aimed at redressing rural household water supply and sanitation deficiencies in Africa.

The following ten countries, all of them considered to be off-track in achieving the MDGs, have been selected: Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Lesotho and Mauritania. With the exception of Lesotho and Mauritania these countries are regarded as fragile states.

 

Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative

The signing ceremony between the government of Rwanda and the AfDB formalises the hosting of mobilised resources by the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI) Trust Fund. The RWSSI, together with contributions from the AfDB, bilateral and multilateral agencies, African governments and communities aims to accelerate access to drinking water supply and sanitation in rural Africa in order to attain the MDG targets in 2015 and the African Water Vision targets of 2025.

Trust Fund Donors such as Burkina Faso, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland have contributed some €140 million to date, of which €5 billion has been leveraged for rural water supply. According to AfDB’s Vice President of Agriculture, Water, Human Development, Governance and Natural Resources, Aly Abou-Sabaa, the AfDB has provided clean water for 82 million people and improved sanitation for 57 million through the RWSSI Trust Fund.

Eligible activities for RWSSI resources are water supply infrastructure, specifically for off-track and fragile states, sanitation infrastructure, development of rural water and sanitation policies, programme and project preparation as well as capacity building and training.