In this statement, we wish to correct that picture. We also wish to make a final concluding statement about the article series as a whole.
Key Points
1. Shift in development aid: In recent years, many countries that previously provided core support (unrestricted grants) to organisations like GWP have reduced their use of core support generally and moved to programmatic (earmarked) support. To a significant degree, the changes in funding at GWP reflect a broader shift in international development aid.
2. Changes in donor support: While some funders have left GWP because of changes in their priorities, others – such as the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environmental Facility – have been moving to increase their support and engagement.
3. Operational efficiency: During 2023 and 2024, GWP has moved decisively in the direction of having a leaner, more efficient, and more decentralized secretariat. Increasingly, programmes are also led and contracted by our regional offices (see the article how our network operates). These changes in our secretariat operations and funding strategy reflect strategic decisions being taken at the global level.
4. FCDO funding misrepresentation: The UK funder FCDO did not abruptly “end” its funding of a programme implemented by GWP, Global Water Leadership, as Svenska Dagbladet erroneously implied. FCDO accelerated its timetable, which closed the programme earlier than originally planned. However, the programme was successfully completed, its results were reported and publicly launched at Stockholm World Water Week, and FCDO has indicated that it is satisfied with those results. FCDO recently awarded GWP with an “A” rating for its capacity to implement programmes effectively. (Please see the related GWP news story.)
Concluding statement from GWP:
As we have carefully documented, the recent article series in Svenska Dagbladet includes numerous misrepresentations of fact and does not present a fair or accurate picture of our organisation. We have been open about the fact that the Stockholm-based secretariat experienced a crisis in 2022-2023. We have continued to protect the confidentiality of people who have raised concerns internally, in full alignment with international standards. And we have also demonstrated that we take criticism seriously and that we act on it.
We have also documented that in spite of this crisis, our organisation and network continued to produce impressive results that are having a demonstrated positive impact on the critical global issue of water security. We have successfully recovered from the crisis period and moved on.
We have attempted to bring our concerns about this article series, including many requests for factual corrections, to the editors of Svenska Dagbladet.
We regret that despite our efforts to provide balanced information, Svenska Dagbladet has not shown interest in presenting an accurate picture of how our organisation works. Nor has the newspaper shown any interest in the positive side of the GWP story – how we have worked for years to improve water-related laws, develop better management plans, support climate-change readiness and investment, promote the inclusion of women in decision-making, and so much more.
We thank our partners and funders for the support they have shown by not accepting this inaccurate and misleading picture of our organisation, and we invite readers to become more familiar with the Global Water Partnership. If you are an organisation that supports the principles of Integrated Water Resources Management, we invite you to join us as a partner.
We also invite Svenska Dagbladet, as a leading newspaper in Sweden, to engage with us in a more balanced conversation and consider highlighting the important, positive changes GWP has made. There is a larger story here, one of global impact in water governance, that deserves to be told.