High-level officials from the governments of Guatemala and Kenya and representatives of international organisations, together with over 120 participants, reflected on the challenges around harnessing funding from multiple sources for water security, in a webinar held on September 8th, 2022, organised by the SDG 6 IWRM Support Programme. In the webinar, the preliminary results of the Funding Matchmaking Initiative, were presented and discussed, as piloted in Kenya and Guatemala. The Initiative aims to match country-defined priorities for water management improvements with the necessary funding and financing, and has been running since September 2021. The event was the second webinar held under the Learning Journey on Innovative Financing for water security through an IWRM Approach. The recording of the session is available in English and in Spanish. This event shed light on the lessons learned in the two countries and how other countries could take them on-board in their own journeys towards financing water security.
Moderated by Fabiola Tábora, Executive Secretary at GWP Central America, the webinar started with introductory remarks by Darío Soto-Abril, Executive Secretary and CEO at GWP, who underlined how the Funding Matchmaking Initiative focuses on bringing together the supply and demand side of financing actions for improved water security and how it also contributes to the financing accelerator of the SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework. He mentioned that financing is the dimension of IWRM that is most lagging behind, and how this negatively affects countries’ efforts to achieve sustainable development, which underscored the importance of implementing the Funding Matchmaking Initiative.
The session continued with experience sharing from the two countries. Andrew M. Kinyua from the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation in Kenya, presented the reasons why the Upper Athi Catchment region was selected for the pilot, and elaborated on the stakeholder engagement process and the identification of priorities for catchment conservation, structured into four investment packages, which had been pitched to private sector stakeholders. He also announced that the government is willing to match one-to-one the funds raised from the private sector partners in the investment packages, up to 16 million USD. Nery Martin Méndez, Vice-minister of Water from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in Guatemala, highlighted the process in his country and the different actions that have been taken in order to strengthen and value the partnerships that they need to properly manage water resources. He highlighted that this initiative aims to support the setting up of a sustainable river basin body in the Pasion watershed in Guatemala, as a first step towards meeting Guatemala’s stated ambition of having such bodies established in each of the country’s watersheds.
Following the engaging presentations, a panel discussion with leading thematic experts was moderated by George Sanga Kavulunze, Regional Coordinator at GWP Eastern Africa. The panel consisted of Franz Höllhuber, Principal Water & Sanitation Engineer at the African Water Facility; Franz Rojas Ortuste, Director at Directorate of Technical Analysis and Evaluation of Water and Sanitation at the Development Bank of Latin America; and Brooke Atwell, Associate Director, Resilient Watersheds at The Nature Conservancy. The country representatives also took part in the panel discussion, in which panellists highlighted inter alia the importance of grouping actions together to facilitate funding; investing in coordination to increase capacities and foster partnerships; how funding and governance are two sides of the same coin; how funding institutions can contribute catalytic funding for locally defined initiatives, when the enabling environment is favourable towards such investments, thus allowing transparency, efficiency and effectiveness in resource mobilisation and allocation; and the importance of a clear value proposition, definition of outcomes and a commitment to (quantitatively) demonstrate the benefits for the successful mobilisation of private sector partnerships.
For both countries, the main challenge in implementing the matchmaking initiative has been to convince the private sector to join in and to align their local funding mechanisms and priorities with the interests and fundings of international partners.
The webinar concluded with a presentation on the SDG 6 IWRM Community of Practice and the next steps of the learning journey by Sandra Bruehlmann, Programme Associate, Water Solutions for the SDGs at GWP. She highlighted how the Community is open to anyone interested in contributing to and learning from others working on this vital topic. Thereafter, the closing remarks were provided by Joakim Harlin, Chief of the Freshwater Ecosystems Unit at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Chief Manager at UNEP-DHI, who underscored the importance of attracting private sector investments in watershed preservation, focusing on both green and grey infrastructure, and in both rural and urban settings. He brought to the fore the challenge around natural resources being undervalued, recognising the interaction between freshwater ecosystems and the vital services they provide.
If you are interested in learning more about the Learning Journey on Innovative Financing for Water Security through an IWRM Approach, to discuss and reflect on case studies and best practices, and to share your insights to accelerate financing for water security, you are invited to:
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Create a free profile on the GWP Toolbox
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Join the SDG 6 IWRM Community on the Toolbox!
