Accelerating Access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in the Eastern and Southern Africa Region

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The regional WASH Access MPA aims to increase access to at least basic WASH services at people’s home, in schools and in health centers, following a common intervention framework across participating countries (country-level phases) and through a regional WASH acceleration operation (regional phase). The MPA proposes an investments of around US$ 1.49 billion in IDA and US$ 0.24 billion in IBRD (Angola), aiming to leverage US$ 0.21 billion of Government financing, US$ 0.65 billion of other development partner financing, and US$ 0.26 billion of private capital financing, with the objective to reach around 30 million people with access to at least basic water and/or sanitation services. The MPA supports a "systems change" approach tailored to the context of each participating country. The MPA designed with four pillars, each with a different menu of activities and interventions:Pillar 1: Platforms to Accelerate Access to WASH : The national platform approach consolidates government-led efforts to achieve universal, sustainable WASH services by integrating funding and promoting cross-sectoral cooperation. National platforms, steered by political and sectoral leadership, will focus on the preparation and/or implementation of National WASH Investment Plans, as well as on policy development, and coordination and mobilization of various sources of financing, while emphasizing inclusivity and gender equality. Digital applications will be leveraged to enhance planning and transparency. Country-level implementation of WASH platforms will involve various government entities. Regional support is provided through benchmarking progress towards SDG6, facilitating knowledge exchange, and attract climate-focused financing to improve WASH access and environmental outcomes across Africa.The Regional WASH Platform (phase I), will serve as a catalyst for countries within the region to embrace more systematic approaches in scaling up access to WASH. Phase 1 aims to facilitate countries' progress in accelerating sustainable access to WASH, through capacity building, progress monitoring, while fostering knowledge sharing among participants. Additionally, the Regional WASH platform plays a pivotal role in providing incentives and mobilizing funds, all directed towards advancing the regional WASH agenda. Through these concerted efforts, phase 1 under the MPA seeks to drive meaningful and sustainable improvements in WASH access across the region.Pillar 2: Sector Governance Reforms: This pillar focuses on strategic governance reforms, addressing non-financial barriers, and enhancing regulatory oversight. It will provide incentives and technical assistances to conduct necessary governance and institutional reforms to improve the enabling environment and the efficiency of public investments to attract increased private sector capital. Sector reforms and their implementation will be informed through analytics and the deployment of tools like Public Expenditure and Institutional Reviews, and Water Sector Assessment Programs (Water SAPs) to identify bottlenecks and establish roadmaps for improvement. The approach includes designing incentive schemes to promote efficient capital expenditure and regulatory alignment, with a focus on decentralized government levels. Under the Regional WASH Platform (phase 1), regulators and policy makers will receive technical assistance to expand their capacities and mandates through regional twinning arrangements, knowledge exchange and technical assistance on governance reforms.Pillar 3: Service Providers Performance Improvement: This pillar focuses on enhancing WASH service delivery models by improving the sustainability of operations and service provision in both urban and rural areas. This pillar aims at improving the creditworthiness of urban utilities as well as the implementation of sustainable operations and maintenance (O&M) models in rural areas. It will support the development and implementation of Performance Improvement Action Plans (PIAPs) and Rural Water and Sanitation Service Professionalization Strategies (RWSSPS) to set medium-term objectives and improve operational and financial sustainability. The implementation of such plans and strategies will aim at reducing water losses and energy consumption, improving the operating ratio of utilities and rural service providers through increasing revenues, cost-efficiency measures, leveraging digitalization. It emphasizes the importance of synchronized strategies for service expansion and operational efficiency, particularly in sanitation, and may involve City-Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) Plans and their implementation where relevant. Additionally, the pillar aims to ensure affordability and inclusion for low-income populations, promote citizen engagement, and improve service delivery through mechanisms like utility scorecards and closing customer feedback loops. Regional capacity building initiatives for utilities, rural service providers, city administrations and rural WASH agencies will be supported through the Regional WASH Platform (phase 1).Pillar 4: Leveraging Financing for Resilient Investments to expand WASH coverage: This pillar aims to leverage both public and private financing to expand resilient water and sanitation infrastructure, focusing on investments in access expansion, including trunk investments, water supply networks, WASH facilities in schools and health centers, and rural sanitation programs. By working with IFC and MIGA, this pillar will finance WASH resilient infrastructure designed to withstand climatic shocks and aims to enable and mobilize private capital, for example through PPP transactions and risk mitigation instruments to mobilize commercial financing and equity. The pillar includes a range of resilience-building activities, WRM analysis and resilient infrastructure design support. Under phase 1 it includes Technical assistance for diagnostics and analysis that can enable private capital mobilization, as well as training and competency development for private sector participation. Moreover, it includes state-of-the art transboundary aquifer assessments and the development of transboundary groundwater / aquifer management plans for MPA countries.