UNDP Water Governance Programme – Funding Proposal to Sweden for 2008-2011

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Water Governance Programme

Funding Proposal to Sweden for 2008-2011

January 2008

Table of Contents

1.Introduction

2.Funding proposal for 2008-2011

Appendices:

Appendix 1: The UNDP Water Governance Strategy______5

Appendix 2: Operational Strategy for the Water Governance Facility______16

Appendix 3: UNDP and Water Governance Programme Organigrams ______30

Appendix 4: WGP Planned Results Framework 2008-2015 ______32

1

UNDP Water Governance Programme – Funding Proposal to Sweden for 2008-2011

1.Introduction

Over the last ten years the UNDP Water Governance Programme (WGP) has developed through a fruitful partnership with the Government of Sweden. The WGP aims towardsassisting countries improve water governance,building capacities and mainstreaming effective water resources management, water supply and sanitation policy at different levels – the local, the national and the regional. As with the Swedish development assistance, the point of departure for UNDP’s efforts to achieve equitable and sustainable development is the poor people’s needs, interests, capacity and conditions. Assisting poor countries improve their water management, including sustainable sanitation, will contribute to the achievement of all the MDGs.

Effective water management is crucial to increasing incomes and livelihoods of the poor, reducing hunger and improving gender equality through empowering women and reducing their work burden. It is also a vital component of actions to cope with climate variability and change, improve environmental sustainability through maintaining the integrity of ecosystems and improving the urban living environment.

The governance ofwater has profound impactson people’s livelihood and their ability to break out from poverty.Achievement of the water and sanitation MDGs is instrumental to achievement of each of the other MDGs. UNDP’s Water Governance Programme will make a contribution towards strategically impacting developing countries’ water management, use, allocation and the improvement of water supply and sanitation. This will have major implications for reducing poverty by increasing poor people’s livelihood opportunities through economic growth, more healthy populations and environmental sustainability.

The Swedish support has enabled UNDP to make positive impact on the ground among others through the establishment of two innovative mechanisms for implementation and delivery, viz. the Community Water Initiative (CWI) and the Water Governance Facility (WGF),hosted by SIWI in Stockholm

The support from Swedenhas been seminal for institutionalizing and sustaining water governancewithin UNDP and positioning UNDP as a lead agency in water governance. Sweden has supported several HQ positions over this period. The first agreement was signed in 1998 and the ‘programmatic support’ to the WGP up to the end of 2007 amounted to 7.4 mUSD. The support to the WGFover its first three years (2005-07) was 921kUSD which was supplemented by 375kUSD from UNDP. Recently the Swedish Government also decided to contribute to UNDP’s multi-donor funded capacity building network in water resources management, water supply and sanitation (Cap-Net) with 4.2 mUSD for the period 2006-08. The Swedish support has enabled UNDP to leverage substantial co-funding for implementation of the WGP at global, regional and local levels. Excluding GEF resources, the leveraged resources at global level alone over the period is in the order of 19 mUSD (EU Water Facility, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway and USA).

Following steps taken after the 2006 strategic planning retreat of the UNDP Environment and Energy Group (EEG), the UNDP Water Governance team is today a fully integrated global team with a nucleus of staff at HQ in New York, a policy advisor and the WGF in Stockholm, and a set of regional technical advisors in Eastern Europe & CIS, Latin America & the Caribbean, the Arab States, Africa and Asia. This team works in matrixed manner with UNDP’s Regional Bureaux, Regional Centres, Thematic Centres and Country Offices.

The Swedish support to the WGP has helped substantially in increasing the prioritization of water governance as key to implementing UNDP’s sustainable human development agendawhichlead in turn to articulation of the present UNDP Water Governance Strategy(WGS) Appendix 1.The WGS utilizes the catalytic momentum of the 2006 Human Development Report and the UN Reform Panel reportto address the water-poverty nexus and MDG targets. The WGS was endorsed by UNDP’s top management through the Operations Group in February 2007. UNDP’s strategy focuses on the role of water for sustainable human development and the extremely strong water-poverty-governance links; the strategic priorities are:

  1. National strategies for equitable management and governance of water
  • Integrated Water Resources Management
  • Water supply and sanitation
  1. Local action on water and sanitation
  2. Cooperation on Transboundary Waters
  3. Adaptation to climate change
  4. Global and regional advocacy & collaboration on water governance

UNDP supports these areas both through its coordination role as the manager of the UNResident Coordinator system and through its own operational policy and capacity building support to countries. Specifically, UNDP is committed to supporting national and regional water governance reforms; mainstreaming water, sanitation and water resource management targets into MDG-based national development and poverty reduction strategies; capacity development and dissemination of knowledge products, and facilitating coordinated ‘One-UN’ consensus approaches to action and advocacy on the water and sanitation targets, to be initiated in a number of pilot countries.

The UNDP Strategic Plan 2008-2011 “sets the overall direction for support to programme countries to achieve national development objectives related to the goal of accelerating progress on human development over the next four years.” It guides UNDP programme activities around four focus areas: poverty reduction, democratic governance, crisis prevention and recovery, and environment and sustainable development. The Strategic Plan is expressed and implemented through the programming instruments of the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) and Country Programme Documents (CPD) for programmatic support to countries. The SP is also expressed through and complemented by the Regional Programmes of the UNDP Regional Bureaux and the Global Programme of the Bureau for Development Policy (BDP).

Water Governance Programme is closely aligned with and supports the UNDP Strategic Plan and its four focus areas and is anchored in the Environment and Energy Group (please see Appendix 1, Water Governance Strategy, page 7). The WGS and WGP is implemented through a vertically aligned water governance team at global (HQ, WGF), regional (Regional Centers), and country (Country Office) levels, supporting country, transboundary and global level programme activities. As such, the Sida-WGP partnership importantly also leverages the funding resources of UNDP Country Programmes, Regional Programmes and the Global Programme. Further, the WGS and WGP has fully integrated the UNDP-GEF and UNDP ‘corporate’ parts of the house.

To effectively work with and through UNDP Country Offices, relevant UNDP entities and networks and local, national and international partners will assure that the objectives of the programme are achieved. UNDP already has got a very strong and long-standing presence in developing countries and it would thus be efficient and cost effective to work through already established UNDP channels within countries as well as with other partners at the international level.

The UNDP WGP draws among other things on existing competencies and resources within the UNDP (see organigram Appendix 3). It is making use of already ongoing programmes such as the GEF, Cap-Net, WGF, CWI etc. with proven track records. The further scaling up of some of these UNDP programmes is considered an efficient and cost effective way of utilising UNDP financial resources.

2.Funding proposal for 2008-2011

Building on our successful cooperation over the last ten years,UNDPseeksto renew its partnership with Swedenfor the time period of the UNDP Strategic Plan 2008-2011. We propose a core programme contribution strategically aiming at the realisation of UNDP’s WGS. The leadership, coordination and UNDP-wide responsibility for UNDP-wide implementation of WGS rests with the Water Governance Programme of UNDP/BDP/EEG under the leadership of Dr. Andrew Hudson. The contribution will include taking the WGF at SIWI into a second phase. UNDP has since August 2007 established a Water Resources Specialist position in Stockholm to strengthen the collaboration and coordination with SIWI and the WGF as well as with other important partners such as the 3 UN-Water centres and GWP. UNDP wishes to utilize the WGF towards scaling-up coordinated support to countries and strategically taking UNDP’s Water Governance Strategy and follow-up to the HDR forward.

The WGS implementation has for the period 2008-2011 a projected need for additional resources of approximately 48 mUSD of which 15.5 mUSD is available (not including GEF funding for International Waters). Of the outstanding 32.5 mUSD needed, 40 mSEK [1](approx 6,5 mUSD) is sought from Sweden. The remaining funding needs are currently being explored with Norway, Finland, UK, US State Dept, Luxembourg, Japan, among others.

WGS implementation is under way through a number of funding and programming vehicles, including the above mentioned WGF and CWI mechanism but also through the Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) International Waters programme, and UNDP Country and Regional Programmes. In part, the Sida and otherresources for WGS implementation will enable UNDP to leverage significant additional resources through Country and Regional Programmes vis-à-vis water.

The new agreement UNDP seeks with Sweden will embrace all elements[2]and strategic priorities of the UNDP Water Governance Strategy. In line with the WGS,a priority area for Sweden funding will be Water Supply and Sanitation given the significant demand and need to accelerate progress on the water supply and sanitation MDGs and public commitment by UNDP at the highest level towards this objective. Cap-Net’s mandate has also recently been enhanced in the area of water supply and sanitation, specifically with building country capacity for water supply and sanitation planning through design and delivery of training to target constituencies.The WGF will increase its work on integrity and accountability in water, especially with regard to water supply and sanitation.

UNDP will programme the Swedish support through the elements of the UNDP WGS with an estimated allocation over themes and years as provided in the table below (thousands Swedish Kronor[3]). As indicated in the table the majority of the resources sought will be used for technical assistance, the only staff positions to be directly funded through the partnership are the Water Governance Facility staff, see also the organigram in Appendix 3.

2008 / 2009 / 2010 / 2011
WGF staff / 2 488 / 2 488 / 2 552 / 2 552
Travel, website, communications and materials / 893 / 957 / 1 020 / 1 085
National strategies for equitable management and governance of water:
  • Water supply and sanitation
  • IWRM
/ 3 190 / 3 222 / 3 255 / 3 285
Cooperation on Transboundary Waters / 702 / 734 / 766 / 798
Adaptation to climate change / 766 / 798 / 829 / 860
Global and regional advocacy & collaboration on water governance / 638 / 670 / 702 / 734
Cross-cutting themes: Gender, HRBA, Integrity etc[4] / 957 / 989 / 1 020 / 1 053
Total cost / 9 634 / 9 857 / 10 144 / 10 366
GRAND TOTAL 2008-2011 / 40000 kSEK

Approximately 50% of the requested Sida funds are foreseen to be programmed through the WGF. The WGF is fully integrated with the UNDP Water Governance Programme and close links and coordination is ensured through the UNDP Water Resources Adviser position co-located with the WGF in Stockholm. This position is fully funded by UNDP resources and constitutes an important component of UNDP’s co-funding to the new agreement with Sweden.

Appendix 1

The UNDP Water Governance Strategy

A Follow-up to Human Development Report 2006

Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis

UNDP/BDP/EEG Water Governance Programme

Context

The 2006 UNDP Human Development Report, “Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis”, has served to catalyze global attention to what it aptly describes as the global water crisis. This crisis means deprivation in access to water: the poor are systematically excluded from access by their poverty, by their limited legal rights or by public policies that limit access to the infrastructures that provide water for life and for livelihoods. While illustrating that chronic water stress does pose a significant threat to human development in many parts of the world, the HDR underscores that, first and foremost, the global water crisis is rooted in power, poverty and inequality, particularly for women. As the HDR title and contents suggest, the water crisis is not so much one of absolute scarcity but one of governance.

Now past the mid-point of the time frame for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the world still faces serious challenges in achieving the water supply and sanitation MDGs: Over 900 million additional people need to gain access to an improved water source by 2015, and over 1,320 million need access to improved sanitation, if the water and sanitation MDGs are to be achieved. While the world as a whole is roughly on track to meet the water target, there are vast disparities in several regions (Sub-Saharan Africa, ArabStates) and in individual countries in all regions. Similarly, while some regions (East Asia/Pacific, Latin America & Caribbean, ArabStates) are on or near to achieving the sanitation target, some regions (South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa) and individual countries need significant acceleration if the sanitation MDG is to be met. Even if the water and sanitation MDGis met, it would still leave an additional 800 million people without access to safe water supply and 1.8 billion people without access to improved sanitation.This underscores that the rate of progress has to increase dramatically and much additional work will remain beyond 2015.

At the same time, water supply is only a tiny fraction of water use (usually < 5%). Water is a fundamental input into most productive sectors (80% to agriculture alone) and increasing competition over use and allocation threatens to leave out the poor even further. The development and management of water resources remain at the heart of the struggle for sustainable human development, growth and poverty reduction. The impacts of climate change will make this challenge even greater. Failure to commit adequate resources to water management and to improve water governance significantly restricts the ability of developing countries to reduce health risks and vulnerability, enhance livelihood security, and achieve pro-poor economic growth.

Above all, the water crisis is a crisis for the poor: people living on less than $2 a day account for about half the sanitation deficit and two thirds of the water supply deficit. Eighty-five percent of the richest twenty percent of the population have access to water while only twenty-five percent of the poorest twenty percent do. The HDR and analyses carried out by UNDP’s Water Governance Programme provide ample evidence that access to water and sanitation is the core driver for development:

Sanitation, water resources management and supply services are all inextricably linked to the other MDGs, many of which cannot be achieved if water fails

The interdependence of people on water is also transboundary – 90% of the world population lives in countries with shared river basins

Competing demands for water means the poor will lose out on all fronts unless we change and improve water governance

Investments in water resources development and management, including sanitation, have an average benefit to cost ratio of about 8:1

Access to both water supply and sanitation explain far more of the variance in the Human Development Index than any other variable examined, including health, education, gender and access to modern energy services

Successfully addressing the water and sanitation crisis could trigger the next major leap forward in human development (as the ‘green revolution’ did in the 60-70’s)

Key HDR recommendations

The publication of the 2006 Human Development Report has re-focused international attention on the MDG water and sanitation targets and related water resources management and development issues. For UNDP, the HDR can serve as a great catalyst to generate concerted action to address the water-poverty nexus and MDG targets.

In the context of ‘Water for Life’, the HDR makes the following four principal recommendations:

  • Make water a human right – legislatively
  • Put in place national strategies for water and sanitation
  • Increase international aid by $3-4 billion/year (Official Development Assistance x2)
  • Develop a Global Action Plan

Key recommendations under ‘Water for Livelihoods’ include: