The latest stop in the Learning Journey on Innovative Financing for Water Security through an IWRM Approach took place on November 24th, 2022, with a specific focus on improving the enabling environment for financing water security in the Asia-Pacific region. This webinar aimed to understand the challenges that currently exist on this topic and learn from practical case studies. The recording of the session is available in English and in Russian.
Moderated by Louise Desrainy, the event started with introductory remarks by Dr. Eduardo Araral, Vice-chair of the Governing Council of the Asia-Pacific Water Forum, who emphasised the importance of water as the core of sustainable development. He mentioned that financing is the dimension of IWRM that is lagging furthest behind and the need to develop new sophisticated financial schemes that blend financing from different stakeholders. He also highlighted the urgency of strengthening cross-sectoral coordination to increase and ensure a more efficient use of existing financial and equitable outcomes.
The session continued with a keynote speech given by Delia Sanchez Trancon, Environmental Economist at OECD. She further highlighted that it is fundamental to make the best use of existing resources, to push strategic investment planning for resilience investments in the context of climate change, to mobilise additional public and private sources and to strengthen the enabling environment for investments. Regarding the latter, certain key elements need to be enhanced, which can be clustered around four dimensions: investment framework, water framework, water projects sustainability and other economic sectors impact. She also introduced the scorecard that the OECD has developed by putting together these characteristics, with the aim of assessing the enabling environment for investment in water security. This tool has been piloted in eight countries in the region, with the support of the Asian Development Bank, and will subsequently be deployed globally.
Afterwards, the session continued with experience sharing from two country representatives. Dr. Asaduz Zaman, founding Executive Director of the Barind Multipurpose Development Authority, Bangladesh and International Irrigation Specialist at the Asian Development Bank, presented an innovative model to promote cost-recovery in irrigation in Bangladesh. He presented the evolution of an irrigation charge system and the technical, social, financial and political challenges they have experienced and possible ways to overcome them. He highlighted that several technologies and approaches such as electrified tube well, low lift pump, solar energy irrigation and prepaid metering system are essential for creating a self-finance and sustainable irrigation systems in Barind. He also mentioned that this system can be replicated in almost all South Asia countries.
Dr. Herry Trisaputra Zuna, Director General of Financing for Public Works, Infrastructure and Housing, Ministry of Public Works and Housing of Indonesia, highlighted the importance of enabling environment for public private partnerships (PPP) to increase private sector investment in water infrastructure in Indonesia, given that the funding capacity gap for water resources infrastructure in Indonesia is still 30%. He underlined that Indonesia already has established policy, regulation and institutional arrangements for public private partnerships such as a Presidential regulation on PPP and the Indonesia Infrastructure Guarantee Fund (IIGF). There are already some successful PPP projects in the water sector, such as a PPP project in drinking water supply, namely SPAM Umbulan in Lampung, and two irrigation projects and a multipurpose dam project are in the pipeline. He also presented the new innovation strategy to increase private sector engagement: the Indonesia Water Fund scheme.
Following the presentations, a rich panel discussion with leading thematic experts shed light on regional opportunities and approaches to push investments in water through innovation. The panel consisted of Allison Woodruff, Principal Water Security Specialist at the Asian Development Bank; Dr. Amgad Elmahdi, Water Sector Lead at the Green Climate Fund; and Cheryl Hicks, Senior Advisor for the United Nations Global Compact’s Water Resilience Coalition. Among the main points discussed were the importance to use concessional financing to attract more commercial finance into the water sector and the presentation of two platforms that the ADB uses to better use public funds to create bankable projects and to catalyse private capital; the investment criteria and the financing instruments and programming that GCF uses to support and deliver projects; and the need to develop innovative investment mechanisms that offer different sets of investment opportunities in order to increase private sector investments, such as mechanisms that return capital enabling businesses to increase their investments while addressing water security goals.
The webinar concluded with a presentation on the SDG 6 IWRM Community of Practice, and closing remarks were provided by Bryce Bray from the Freshwater Ecosystems Unit at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), who highlighted the use of Nature-based Solutions for sustainable, climate-resilient water management.
This event took place in the framework of the learning journey on Innovative Financing for Water Security through an IWRM Approach. Join the IWRM Community of Practice to participate in the learning journey:
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Create a free profile in the GWP Toolbox.
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Join the SDG 6 IWRM community on the ToolBox!
