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Global Water Security & Sanitation Partnership, a year later

  • Global Water Security & Sanitation Partnership, year later

About the entity

The World Bank
The World Bank Group has two goals, to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity in a sustainable way

More than 1000 days have passed since world leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the United Nations. These 17 global goals provide concrete and ambitious targets for countries to address their development challenges. SDG 6, the “Water SDG,” aims to “ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.”  With its eight individual targets, SDG 6 encourages decision makers to support increasingly integrated solutions. Reaching the SDGs by 2030 will require a significant increase in political, social and financial commitments in order to deliver on the targets.

That’s why, in 2017, the World Bank with its partners launched a new initiative for a water-secure world, the Global Water Security & Sanitation Partnership (GWSP), housed within the World Bank’s Water Global Practice (GP.) Today, the GWSP publishes its first-ever Annual Report Water’s Edge – Rising to the Challenge of a Changing World which provides a snapshot of its first year of delivery.

The report shows how the GWSP is shifting where and how countries invest in water by putting resources behind five priority themes deemed essential to achieving the SDGs – sustainability, institutions, financing, inclusion and resilience. By bringing innovation, new knowledge and evidence, and flexibility to World Bank lending operations, the GWSP helps clients achieve more significant and more sustainable results. The partnership is working where it matters most, on the frontlines of some of the most pressing global crises – drought, conflict, refugees – and at the global level is contributing to key results in 2018:

The GWSP’s goal is to see one country after another achieve better development outcomes - across a range of sectors - through water management practices that mitigate risk

  • 15.7 million people benefitting from water supply and sanitation services
  • 11.5 million people benefitting from access to improved sanitation services
  • 1.8 million people benefitting from improved irrigation services
  • And helping bring solutions to scale, influencing the global debate and enhancing the lending portfolio

Already, in its first year, GWSP-funded analytics and assistance to 31 countries are influencing $13.8 billion in World Bank lending. Water’s Edge also reports on many success stories at the national level:

  • In Tanzania, GWSP supports 150 rural water service providers to lower costs by using solar-powered water pumps and prepaid meters; a first step toward financial sustainability.
  • In Bangladesh, GWSP is working with other donors and the private sector to implement micro-finance schemes for latrines. GWSP-funded capacity building for both toilet manufacturers and customers has leveraged $25 million in loans and output-based subsidies to help 850,000 people gain access to improved sanitation services.
  • In Vietnam, GWSP is supporting the development of new rural water policies to improve water point functionality, and to expand access to improved water sources to another 105,000 households.

At the core of GWSP’s model is a belief that first-rate research and systematic application of global knowledge is essential to maintaining the high quality of World Bank operations. It is equally essential to shaping the external debate as part of our mission to deliver a water-secure world for all. Water's Edge captures how GWSP generates, curates and disseminates such first-rate knowledge and know-how. Its work is both informed by - and influences - Water GP projects across the world.

GWSP builds on the history and heritage of its predecessors, the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) and the Water Partnership Program (WPP).  GWSP Program Manager Joel Kolker said: “Water’s Edge shows how World Bank clients are asking for more practical assistance and programmatic investments that empower country institutions over traditional, siloed infrastructure projects. Such a shift in thinking would not have been possible without the upstream analytical and knowledge contributions of the WSP, WPP, and GWSP across a range of countries over the previous decade.”

With its unique combination of new thinking, long-term country engagement and just-in-time technical support, the GWSP’s goal is to see one country after another achieve better development outcomes - across a range of sectors - through water management practices that mitigate risk.

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