African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

vice provision programmes in Africa that are designedto remove bottlenecks and help leverageadditional financial resources from multilateraland bilateral sources as well as from public, privateand community resources. This will be doneby promoting innovative actions by both countriesand donors; assisting in the creation of anenabling environment; and helping to build governanceand management capacity within implementinginstitutions.The Facility would be defined under the broadframework of NEPAD, the Africa Water Visionand the priority areas identified at the AccraWater Conference. An evolving Facility willrequire gradually increasing resources availablefor investments. The Facility will be expected toraise $US 300-500 million in the short to mediumterm to leverage funds to contribute towardthe $US 20 billion needed annually to meet thecontinent’s water targets for 2025. Initially, theFacility will focus on assisting countries to gainaccess to existing sources as well as to additionalfunds that would be made available to it.The areas of focus of the Facility include supportingappropriate priority programmes at theregional, subregional and national levels. At thenational level, the focus will be on:(a) Integrated water resources managementplanning, projects and programmes;(b) Capacity building, especially in the contextof programme development, affordabilityand procurement;(c) Data collection, analysis, and dissemination;and(d) Designing and implementation of policyand institutional reform.Moreover, there is a synergy between politicaland technical institutions in Africa, coupledwith a strong cooperation and collaborative effortswith United Nations bodies through theUN-Water/Africa. All these components, if wellblended, would definitely become a driving forcefor the implementation of the Africa Water Visionchallenges, around which the African WaterDevelopment Report is being developed.The African Water Development ReportWith the current awareness of the impendingwater crisis the world over, the United Nationssystem and various international fora have calledfor an innovative way to manage our water resourcesnot in a “business as usual” manner. Thatis:To stop the unsustainable exploitation of waterresources by developing water managementstrategies at the regional, national and locallevels which promote both equitable accessand adequate supplies.In pursuance of this objective, and in recognitionof the growing water crisis, the United Nationsfamily organizations launched a system-wideeffort called the World Water Assessment Programme(WWAP):(a) To identify and describe the nature of thewater crisis;(b) To report progress on the achievements ofthe agreed targets; and(c) To strengthen the efforts of member Statesto monitor and report progress towardsachieving targets (UNESCO, 2003).The aim is to develop tools and skills that wouldfoster a better understanding of the basic processes,management practices and policies thatensure that clean and sufficient water is availableto all. WWAP is an ongoing exercise to map theworld’s progress towards sustainable use of itsfreshwater resources. The World Water DevelopmentReport (WWDR) was also instituted topublish the main trends and results of this processat regular intervals. It is intended to providedecision makers at the continental, subregional,regional, national and river basin levels with informationthat can be used at various levels togovern water wisely. The first WWDR was publishedin March 2003.INTRODUCTION - WATER FOR SUSTAINABLE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT15