The Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority last week made a landmark contribution of USD three million to UN-HABITAT. The contribution to the agency’s Water and Sanitation Trust Fund has been fully earmarked to the Global Water Operators Partnerships Alliance Programme, a network led by UN-HABITAT, dedicated to ‘helping water operators’ help each other’ through twinning and other forms of not-for-profit peer support. The generous contribution will bolster the Alliance with USD one million a year for three consecutive years. The funds will be used to support the Alliance’s programme activities in capacity building and knowledge management, advocacy and communication, as well as in supporting water operators’ partnerships in Africa, Asia, the Arab Region, Latin America and the Caribbean and South East Europe. In addition, for the next three years, the Authority will host the Alliance Representative Office for Arab Countries in Abu Dhabi. This office will play an important role in helping develop Arab water operators’ capacities through the promotion of twinning, national and regional technical cooperation, advocacy and outreach, networking, and exchange of experiences and expertise. “This contribution provides a real boost to the Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance that UN-HABITAT has helped launch” said the Director of the Human Settlements and Financing Division at UN-HABITAT, Bert Diphoorn. UN-HABITAT was requested in 2006 by former UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, to lead the initiative, a key recommendation of the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board "Hashimoto Action Plan" for helping get the world back on track to meet water and sanitation related Millennium Development Goal targets. This contribution will help the Alliance continue driving the agenda of not-for-profit partnerships and peer learning to improve the capacity of the world’s public water operators that today contribute over 90% of the world’s piped water supply. |
