Introduction
- The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI) was launched in 2003 with the strategic goal of achieving full access to safe, adequate and affordable water supply and sanitation for rural areas in Africa by 2025. The RWSSI targets for 2015 are aligned with the MDG targets of 70% and 62% access to water supply and sanitation, respectively. This report updates stake holders on the progress made in 2013.
Financial Status
Fund Mobilised in 2013: Fund Mobilized in 2013: In 2013, a total of € 130.8 million was committed for a total of six country operations. Of this € 62.02 million is from ADF resources, € 45.15 million from the Fragile States Facility (FSF) and € 15.96 million from the RWSSI-TF. It also includes €7.67 from the Least Developed Country Fund (LDCF) whose implementation was approved by the Bank’s Board.
Cumulative Funds Mobilised to Date: By 31st December 2013, a total financing of about € 4.85 billion had been mobilised, of which € 1.09 billion (22%) was from the African Development Bank (AfDB), € 0.13 billion (3%) from the RWSSI-TF, €1.90 billion (39%) from other donors, € 1.49 billion (31%) from African governments and € 0.24 billion (5%) from beneficiary communities.
Fund Mobilised for RWSSI-TF: During the reporting period, the RWSSI-TF received € 0.5 million from Italy and € 13 million from France. The total financial contributions received in the Trust Fund account as at 31st December 2013 was € 138.04 million. The cumulative fund, including accrued interest, is € 140.58 million. Of this, € 134.4 million has been committed to projects/pro grams and other RWSSI activities, leaving only € 6.14 million available for new commitments at the end of 2013.
Status of Implementation
Implementation Progress in 2013:During the reporting period, six new RWSSI country operations were approved: (DRC, Djibouti, Lesotho, Mauritania Phase III, Sao Tome and Principe, and Sierra Leone). In addition appraisals for Guinea Conakry and project preparations for Ethiopia and Zambia were undertaken. Two studies on ‘Hygiene and Health Education’ and ‘Supply Chains in Operations and Maintenance of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation’ were completed.
Bank-Supported RWSSI operations: The six new operations raised the total number of approved operations to 44 in 32 countries at the end of 2013. In 2013, operations in 4 countries (Angola, Chad, Malawi and Morocco) were completed. Since RWSSI’s inception in 2003, a total of 11 operations have been completed.
Disbursements: The total amount disbursed for all RWSSI operations increased by € 73 million from about € 492 million at the end of 2012, to € 563 million as at 31st December 2013. The total cumulative disbursement by 31st December 2013 was 52% of committed resources. The annual disbursement of the RWSSI-TF increased from € 9.4 million in 2012 to € 17.2 million in 2013, bringing the total disbursement of the Trust Fund resources to € 53.61 million. The annualised disbursement rate of the RWSSI TF in 2013 amounted to 21%. For the first time since the creation of the RWSSI TF the annual disbursement rate has thereby exceeded the target of 20%.
Achievements
Sanitation: An additional 13.3 million people were reported to have acquired access to improved sanitation during the reporting period, bringing the total population served in the 24 countries that reported progress to about 57 million. This represents a 30% increase over the reported cumulative achievement at the end of 2012. In 2013, RWSSI reported the construction of about 9,300 public latrines, and the sensitization of 903,000 persons through sanitation and hygiene education campaigns. The latter has likely contributed to close to 319,000 additional household latrines being constructed in the reference period.
Water Supply: An additional 23.6 million people were provided with access to improved water supply in 2013, bringing the total population provided with access in the 242 countries that reported to about 823 million (a 28% increase over the 2012 results). Nearly 54,400 new water points were constructed in the same period, bringing the total to about 225,700. Rehabilitation of existing water points also increased by about 22,800 water points, bringing the cumulative water points rehabilitated to about 67,000.
Capacity Building: In 2013, a total of 27,000 water, sanitation and hygiene committees (WASHComs) were established, bringing the cumulative number to 91,000. Over 93% of the committees had received training in leadership skills, management of water schemes and sanitation and hygiene. In addition about 665 teachers, 2,800 local staff and 12,600 artisans were trained. As mentioned before, over 903,000 persons had also been directly sensitized in hygiene and environmental sanitation.
RWSSI Co-ordination Committee (RCC): The meeting to launch the RCC was convened by AfDB and AMCOW in Tunis from 26 – 27th March 2013. The meeting reviewed the draft Terms of Reference (ToR) and membership of the RWSSI Co-ordination Committee (RCC), outlined undertakings for the first year and launched the membership of the RCC. The first RCC meeting was organised in Abuja from 5th to 6th December 2013. One of the outcomes of the RCC meeting was a decision to put greater emphasis on information exchange and learning on rural water supply and sanitation from shared experiences at the AMCOW sub-regional level.
RWSSI TF Management: The Steering Committee (SC) Members of the RWSSI TF convened the Annual RWSSI SC Meeting on 29th May 2013 during the Bank’s Annual General Meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco. The SC approved the 2012 RWSSI Progress Report and 2013 Work Plan and Budget and agreed a number of points on the way forward.
Terms of reference for the preparation of the RWSSI Toolkit and for a Communication Strategy were prepared and a draft guideline for the utlization of RWSSI TF resources in standalone activities was prepared and is under review. A RWSSI Focal Point was recruited and commenced his assignment in October 2013.
The RWSSI Strategic Plan (SP) was approved by the Bank’s Board of Directors on 18th April 2013.