In 2008 the UNDP-Water Governance Facility at SIWI (WGF), together with Cap-Net and WaterNet, mapped regional and national policies, institutions, laws and regulations, and active projects to promote transparency, accountability and integrity in the water sector in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. One of the key recommendations of the study was to build capacity in water integrity for staff at regional, national and local level, including various river basin organizations, as well as government and municipal entities. This need for capacity building was also reflected by the 2008 Global Corruption Report in the water sector, and expressed through the 2009 Water Integrity Network (WIN) surveys.
Funded by the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), this current project will implement a Regional Capacity Building Programme over a 3 year period to promote and enhance water integrity in sub-Saharan Africa. It is expected that increasing water integrity will directly impact on socio-economic development and poverty reduction. Indeed, unethical practices reduce economic growth, discourage investments, violate human dignity, increase health risks and compromise efforts to reduce poverty. The implementing partners are (1) WGF (2) the Stockholm International Water Institute – SIWI, (3) the Water Integrity Network – WIN, and (4) Cap-Net in collaboration with WaterNet.
Through partnership with ECOWAS, EAC-Lake Victoria Basin Commission and SADC, the programme targets water sector stakeholders (those responsible for the management of water resources and for integrated water supply and sanitation services) at regional, basin and national levels who are responsible for regulation, controlling, planning, policy development and decision making. It also targets stakeholders that are less directly involved in water management, but have a key role in strengthening or demanding accountability, such as water users associations, advocacy organisations and the media.
Generally, ECOWAS, EAC and SADC countries have committed themselves to integrity and accountability through good governance and the promotion of transparency and accountability. Their secretariats, together with the implementing partners of this programme, will reinforce the regional efforts to bolster integrity at all levels in the water management and service delivery chain.
Project info
- Link and resrouces: http://www.watergovernance.org/integrity/SSA
- Project team: James Leten, Maria Jacobson, Marianne Kjellen, Ana Cascao, Rami Abdel Rahman
- Client and partners: ECOWAS, EAC-Lake Victoria Basin Commission, and SADC. Implemented by Water Integrity Network (WIN), Capnet and WaterNet
- Financed by Sida
- Timeline: July 2011-June 2014
