The African Water Facility (AWF) is making progress towards operationalising the African Urban Sanitation Investment Initiative (AUSII), its new funding window designed to improve sanitation in African cities. After the Nordic Development Fund (NDF) with €12 million in funding, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $6 million.
To support the roll-out of inclusive and climate-resilient urban sanitation services in Africa, including the city-wide inclusive sanitation approach, the African Water Facility (AWF) has launched the African Urban Sanitation Investment Initiative (AUSII) in 2023. But for this new funding window for improving sanitation in African cities to become operational, funding is needed – a total of $320 million for operations, $7 billion in investments and 10% of investment funding from climate finance sources, which will need to be mobilised in the first ten years.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the second financial partner to make a commitment on 1 March 2024 with a sum of 6 million dollars, joining the Nordic Development Fund (NDF), which earlier injected 12 million euros into the urban sanitation project.
Improving sanitation for 15 million people
When operational, the AUSII will finance the development of tailor-made solutions such as “on-site sanitation and decentralised sanitation for towns and neighbourhoods”, says the AWF, which is a special fund hosted and managed by the African Water Bank (AfDB), at the request of the African Ministers in charge of Water (AMCOW).
Its ambition is to finance 50 urban sanitation projects in Africa (solid and liquid waste treatment, construction of safe sanitation facilities, etc.), and thereby improve the living environment of some 15 million people in several African countries. “Across the continent as a whole, the percentage of the population with access to at least basic sanitation is less than 45%, and around 10% of urban premises are served by sewerage systems, with 90% of sanitary facilities without sewers”, deplores the AWF.
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Recall that in 2018, the Special Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had already signed an initial contribution agreement of $14.5 million to pilot city-wide inclusive sanitation projects through feasibility and design studies in seven countries, namely Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Ghana, Mauritania, Ivory Coast and Togo. This has resulted in the development of urban sanitation service projects in these cities with an estimated downstream investment of $500 million and outputs that include improved and inclusive on-site sanitation, faecal sludge management, development of sanitation master plans and investment planning.
Inès Magoum
