PROJECT OBJECTIVES
	CURRENT STATUS

The “Water for the Poor” Global Development Alliance partnership was initiated in late 2001 to maximize the impact of water-related investments by both the U.S. government and private actors, targeting interventions on highly vulnerable rural and urban populations in the developing world. In its initial phase, the Alliance will invest in small-scale potable water supply and sanitation activities in West Africa as the entry point for an integrated approach to water resources management. Collaboration with other organizations will create programmatic synergy and access the complementary strengths of a number of affiliated partners. The total budget from all partners is at least $40 million for five years.

The impact of this initiative will be significant, and will result in access to improved services, improved health and welfare, and more sustainable management of water resources for hundreds of thousands of people. In particular, it will demonstrate significant U.S. support for the U.N. Millennium Development Goal to “halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water”.

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation has committed $17.5 million dollars of its resources over five years to this new Alliance. USAID’s investment commitment currently reaches $4.4 million to be spent over three years, including $2.5 from the EGAT Pillar Bureau and ENV office, $500,000 from the Global Development Alliance, $800,000 from the USAID Water Team, $400,000 from the EGAT/Women in Development Office and $200,000 from the Global Health Bureau’s Environmental Health Program. In addition, USAID has brought in the World Chlorine Council (a private sector industry association) to the Alliance, for a product donation of PVC pipe valued at $300,000. Implementation will occur through a diverse array of partners who each bring at least a 1:1 match of their own resources to the table (totaling $18.4 million) including: World Vision, WaterAid, UNICEF, Desert Research Institute/Winrock International, the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD), and Lions Clubs International.

The current members of the Alliance represent a broad spectrum of institutional types, including a private foundation, a bilateral donor, international NGOs, universities, a public international organization, and a private for-profit sector industry association. All of these organizations have a broad international reach. Additional partners have already expressed interest in being involved, and there is great enthusiasm to expand the program through incorporation of new resources and institutions over time.

The Alliance will have a geographic focus on West Africa in its initial phase, specifically in Ghana, Mali, and Niger. Activities will build on the long-standing investment of the Hilton Foundation in this region, through their principal on-the-ground partner, World Vision. Alliance activities in all three countries will expand on the program already in place in Ghana, which focuses on potable water as the entry point for long-term development. Existing efforts in Mali and Niger would also build on current efforts to prevent and control trachoma and guinea worm.

USAID support will be managed by the Agency Water Team, and will be directed to strengthening the Integrated Water Resources Management scope of the activities, embedding potable water activities in a broader, cross-sectoral framework. Specifically, USAID will focus on four areas of intervention: Livelihoods and Income Generation, Governance and the Enabling Environment, Information Management, and Gender Mainstreaming. Investments will focus on the “software” side of the effort, e.g. institutional strengthening, capacity building, information management, stakeholder participation, water policy reform, financial sustainability, as well as targeted on-the-ground technical support and troubleshooting. Through its interventions, the Agency expects to have a catalytic role in the Alliance as a whole, influencing the partner organizations to expand their areas of activity and long-term approach in line with the principles of integrated water resources management.

In addition to its financial and technical support, USAID/EGAT Water Team will play a central role in Alliance-building during the early stages of partnership consolidation, including facilitating a dialogue among partners to reach consensus on Initiative mission, objectives, goals, and roles. The Team will also draw on its extensive relationship in the international water community to build linkages with other important global initiatives in the water sector, including the possibility of highlighting the Alliance at the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.