Featured Post

REVIEW: Poverty alleviating infrastructure requires innovation

Posted by on
The core of contemporary societies is infrastructure, it is crucial for inclusive growth and poverty reduction on a habitable planet, access to clean water, schools, hospitals, energy, transportation, and digital networks. To fulfill the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement targets, infrastructure must be reimagined as sustainable, resilient, and inclusive. Financing, planning, and construction all require innovative approaches. Developing sustainable infrastructure in emerging markets and developing economies requires colossal annual investments in the trillions. Innovative funding, planning, and construction approaches are paramount to achieving this. Firstly, governments facing fiscal constraints must prioritize private sector-led infrastructure development and finance through mechanisms like public-private partnerships (PPPs). Secondly, development banks, including multilateral development banks (MDBs), play a crucial role, facilitating large-scale private i
0

NEWS: Investment in Africa's water infrastructure is key to delivering social justice and economic growth

Posted by on
Access to clean water is well understood as a public health issue, but in Africa, limited water access and poor sanitation act as a major drag on economic growth. The International High-Level Panel on Water Investments for Africa estimates that sub-Saharan Africa loses 5% of its GDP annually – US$170bn per year – as a result of poor water infrastructure.


Access to water is also critical at the intersection of social justice and economic productivity. Each year, 40bn hours of otherwise productive time is spent collecting water. And that burden falls disproportionately on women and girls, robbing them of time in education or at work.

Investment in water infrastructure, therefore, is key to the continent realising its fullest human and economic potential. The pay-offs from that investment are immediate, multiple and central to sustainable development. The African Union highlights that every US$1 invested in climate-resilient water and sanitation returns at least US$7 in improvements to health and education, food security, the environment, gender equality and progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) partnership is dedicated to generating and leveraging the political will and leadership needed to make and manage that investment.

In October, working with the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), SWA brought together 40 finance ministers and development partners from across Africa to discuss ways to mobilise an extra US$30bn annual investment in water and sanitation infrastructure.

In this series of articles, we look at why that investment is so critical and how it could be put to work.

“Dramatic progress is possible with forward-thinking leaders who can connect the dots and understand the importance and urgency of investing in water infrastructure,” says Catarina de Albuquerque, CEO of SWA.

“The cost of inaction is too great,” argues Abida Sidik Mia, Malawi's water and sanitation minister. “Water is the foundation of all healthy, productive and sustainable countries – that's what we are striving to be.”

This hardhatNEWS article was first published on Economist Impact

Comments

Post a Comment