The launch of the G8-Africa Water Partnership promised to be a centrepiece of the G8 Summit in L’Aquila but it contained no specific actions and no extra finance, the End Water Poverty campaign said. “A G8 progress report outlining actions on water since the launch of the G8 Evian Water Plan in 2003 shows that the bulk of reported funding increases have gone to Iraq and other regions of political and economic interest rather those of greatest need”.
The official statement, released on 10 July 2009, explained that the Partnership between the G8 and the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), under the leadership of the African Union (AU), would “continue working, on the basis of commitments previously undertaken, which include: make water-related MDGs a top development priority; implement national water and sanitation plans; implement financial plans for mobilizing resources to the sector, including allocating resources within national budgets; enhance their leading role in guiding development assistance through donor coordination processes and the definition of water and sanitation investment plans in line with the Paris declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action”.
“To support the implementation of the African commitments, G8 countries will: assist the building of capacity in African countries to develop and implement national water and sanitation plans; improve coordination within multi-donor platforms to promote aid effectiveness; align assistance to better reflect national priorities; improve bilateral and multilateral contributions to financial mechanisms aimed at mobilizing investment; assist the AU Commission, AMCOW and Regional Economic Communities in response to the African demands for institutional support”.
A “strengthened Africa-G8 Partnership on Water and Sanitation” would be presented by the end of 2009. “The Africa Water Week due to take place in November [2009] in South Africa might provide an opportunity for tangible progress towards our common goal of meeting our water and sanitation challenges”.
