The Africa Water Investment scorecard is an outcome of the high level consultation between AfDB, AUDA-NEPAD, COMESA, DBSA, and GWP Africa that was convened on 11 November 2020 and hosted by His Excellency Jakaya Kikwete, 4th President of the Republic of Tanzania and 6th Chairperson of the African Union. In attendance were Her Excellency Chileshe Kapwepwe, Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki, CEO of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), Mr. Osward Chanda, Manager: Water Security and Sanitation at the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) via Zoom link.
The high-level meeting recommended the development of a water investment scorecard and apply lessons from similar scorecards in health (ALMA) and agriculture (CAAPD).
“The Africa Water Investment Scorecard will mobilise high level political and continental leadership to address the water investment infrastructure gap to meet socio-economic needs of the continent and meet the 2025 Africa Water Vision and 2030 SDG 6 on water and sanitation’, said Alex Simalabwi, GWPSA Executive Secretary and Head of Africa Coordination.
The partners hosted a meeting attended by Joy Phumaphi, Executive Secretary of the Africa Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), with the purpose of sharing lessons from the organisation’s work in creating the ALMA Scorecard for Accountability and Action in 2011.
The Scorecard tracks Malaria-related indicators and proposes actions to improve the status of Malaria incidence and response. It responds to the need for a robust mechanism to strengthen accountability, transparency, action, and follow-up on malaria commitments on the continent.
Joy Phumaphi mentioned that the ALMA scorecard has been successfully used at the Head of State and Government level as an advocacy and accountability tool. The Africa Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) was championed by His Excellency Jakaya Kikwete, 4th President of the Republic of Tanzania and 6th Chairperson of the African Union.
Lessons from the success of the ALMA Scorecard for Accountability and Action will be applied to the development of a similar scorecard, tracking country efforts in implementing the Africa Water Investment Programme (AIP) whose goal is to transform and improve the investment outlook for water security and sustainable sanitation on the continent. The current rate of investment in the sector lags behind Africa’s growing social, economic, and environmental needs. While the African Development Bank estimates that $64billion should be invested annually in water and sanitation to meet the 2025 Africa Water Vision of Water Security for All, the actual figure sits between $10 - $15billion.
An African Water Investment Scorecard will support the implementation of the Africa Water Investment Programme (AIP) which aims to leverage $30bn in investments towards water and sanitation.
AIP is an outcome of the High-Level Panel on Water (HLPW) co-convened in 2016 by the UN Secretary- General and the World Bank President and comprised of 11 sitting Heads of State from Australia, Bangladesh, Hungary, Jordan, South Africa, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Senegal, and Tajikistan.
In February 2019, the Governing Council of the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) adopted a Decision for transformation of Africa’s water investment outlook through increased partnerships and implementation of AIP. The development of the Africa Water Investment Scorecard will be supported by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). This follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the DBSA and GWP on 12 November in Pretoria to promote investment and collaboration for water and sanitation projects in the Southern Africa region.