World Water Week in Stockholm

The Seminar on “Regional Water Operators Partnership Initiatives: Constraints, Challenges and Way Forward” was co-convened by UN-HABITAT and the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB) on 19 August. It was co-chaired by Bert Diphoorn of UN-HABITAT and Antonio Miranda of UNSGAB.

Representatives of four regional WOPs mechanisms (Asia, Latin America, Arab States, and Africa) made presentations on their activities to build partnerships based on the WOPs principles for the provision of water and sanitation services in their regions. This was followed by a participatory panel discussion moderated by Faraj El-Awar, Programme Manager, Global WOPs Alliance, UN-HABITAT. Panelists and the other participants highlighted the following issues necessary for successful WOPs:

• Self-sustained networks based on common interests of the cooperating utilities.

• Willingness to share information

• Financial sustainability of utility networks

• Knowledge transfer across regions

• Utility commitment to implement changes

• Identification of, and working with, few champions

• Training and capacity building support to regional WOPs initiatives by the Global WOPs Alliance.

• Sanitation is a critical issue to utilities – impact on pollution

• Increased involvement of citizens/civil society organizations, local authorities in the WOPs process

• Integrity in the management of utilities

• Public versus private partnerships – the main focus of WOPs is public – public partnerships, especially that globally more than 90% of water operators are public. However, private operators can participate in the regional and global WOPs processes as long as developed partnerships are non-profit in nature.

General outcomes of the event are the following:

• Awareness raised on the Global WOPs Alliance as an umbrella and a platform for inter-regional exchange for regional WOP processes

• Experiences shared on regional WOPs processes, the challenges they are facing, and the way forward ahead of them

• Information disseminated on current activities and future plans of bilateral and multilateral partners which are active in supporting regional WOPs processes

• Issues raised such as the need for guidelines to guarantee adherence to WOPs principles (non-profit basis), and the inclusion of transparency in the water sector in the Global WOPs activities

Seminar Programme 09:00-12:00, Room K21

Co-chairs: Mr. Bert Diphoorn, Ag. Dir. Human Settlements Financing Division, UN-HABITAT, Kenya, and Antonio Miranda, Head of WOP Working Group, UNSGAB

09:00	Welcome and Introduction by Co-chairs, Bert Diphoorn and Antonio Miranda
09:15	WOP process in Latin America and the CaribbeanCarlos Rosito, President-Elect, Inter-American Association of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering (AIDIS)
09:30	WOP process in the Arab States Bassam Jaber, Coordinator, Foundation Committee of Arab Countries Water Utilities Association (ACWUA)
09:45	WOP process in South Asia Suleman Chandio, Chair, South Asian Water Utility Network (SAWUN)
10:00	WOPs process in Africa Sylvain Usher, Secretary General, African Water Association (AfWA)
10:15	Addressing the Needs of Small Water Utilities through Twinning - A Case Study from Lake Victoria Pireh Otieno, Associate Project Officer, WATSAN Programme, UN-HABITAT
10:30	Coffee Break
10:50	Panel Discussion Panel members: • Dick Van Ginhoven, Sr. Water and Sanitation Advisor, Department of Environment and Water, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands); • Federico Basañes, Chief Water and Sanitation Division, IADB • John Wilson, Senior Env. Officer, Bureaus of the Near East and Asia, USAID, USA • Wambui Gichuri, Regional Team Leader – WSP, World Bank • Paul Taylor, Director, Cap-Net • Steen Bjerggaard, WOPs Coordinator, IWA Moderator: Faraj El-Awar, Programme Manager, Global WOP Alliance, UN-HABITAT, Kenya
12:00	Close of Seminar

Download the UN-HABITAT's own programme of events