00:00Access to water and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa is improving, but far too slowly.
00:05According to data from the World Health Organization and UNICEF's Joint Monitoring Program,
00:11840 million people in the region had access to basic drinking water services in 2024,
00:17up from 587 million a decade ago. But progress hasn't kept pace with population growth.
00:24Nearly one in three people in sub-Saharan Africa still lack basic water access. The gap reflects
00:32service delivery failures, underinvestment and weak governance, all made worse by climate shocks
00:37and rapid urbanization. I spoke with Shoma Moolik, practice manager at the World Bank,
00:42and she said the lender is working on regional programs to boost access to potable water in the
00:49continent. Take a listen. This really calls for a systems change moving away from infrastructure.
00:54And focusing more on institutions, sector governance, turning the utilities, making more
01:00responsive local governments, as well as to see that where we can bring in innovative financing,
01:06and as well as to crowd in more and more private financing. We know that also the current spending
01:13gaps are huge. In any country that we find in Africa right now, that the public financing is even
01:21less than 1% of the GDP, which is even lesser than what countries are spending on education,
01:27which is around 3.5%. In the health, the spending is around 5% or 6%, while for water supply
01:36and
01:36sanitation, it's just less than 1%. That's a huge difference, which also means that more and more
01:42financing needs to crowd in. And that means more and more innovative financing to crowd in. And also,
01:48at the same time, build up the utilities' performance and changing the sector governance.
01:52From the bank's perspective, given the myriad of challenges you just outlined there,
01:57how is the bank prioritizing what needs to be addressed first?
02:02From the bank's side, the biggest thrust would be to see that we will be able to generate more jobs.
02:07And water is going to be the most essential driver for creating and inducing jobs. We know that in
02:13Africa, two-thirds of the labor force is dependent on water-related jobs, and that's where most of the
02:20jobs will be created. Given that premise, more and more work is needed around building up strong
02:26institutions, sector governance that is needed, making them more accountable in terms of service
02:34to see that there are lasting impacts coming in. Can we talk about the financing? Because it really
02:40seems to come down to that. What form of financing is needed? Because the World Bank, we know oftentimes
02:49loans, concessional loans, but then we know a number of countries are also turning to commercial
02:53loans. When you look at the current environment that a number of African countries are in, what do you
02:58think will actually push progress forward? If you look at financing, which you're still looking
03:04at public financing? That's where most of the water sector is currently in. And to crowd in private
03:11financing, we need to create those enabling conditions, particularly better regulatory frameworks
03:17and making utilities creditworthy. Right now, the number of private financing is still very, very small,
03:23and it is only looking at the niche areas such as PPPs or performance-based contracts for reducing
03:33non-revenue water or in waste water management. But most of the commercial financing to come in would
03:39actually mean that the sector needs to move faster in terms of delivering the services, you know,
03:45and bringing it more creditworthy. So right now, even if you see there are opportunities, there is a huge
03:52opportunity to crowd in private financing if you change the sector governance. And this is only possible
03:57when, you know, when leaders commit to turning the sector around. We have seen some examples of
04:04blended finance as well as using guarantees to de-risk projects. We have an excellent example in Angola where
04:11the Beta Water Guarantee, which is about enhancing and expansion of water services in the city of Luanda,
04:19it was only possible with the IVRT Guarantee of $500 million IVRT Guarantee that leveraged
04:26$1.1 billion of commercial financing. This is just an example, and we know that these are
04:33possible, and we are working with our own WellBank group by bringing in the new instruments, the new
04:39tools for financing by bringing in IFC and Mika more and more into the discussion and dialogue forward.
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