December 14, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON – Today, Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Ted Poe (R-TX) introduced H.R. 3658, the “Water for the World Act of 2012,” bipartisan legislation that strengthens U.S. foreign assistance in water and sanitation by leveraging innovation, strengthening partnerships, and improving transparency and accountability without making additional demands on the foreign assistance budget. The bill improves the effectiveness of our aid programs and moves us towards greater country-ownership of projects, while ensuring our investments provide long-term benefits. It allows us to provide more while using less in support of the world’s poorest people.

Nearly 900 million people around the world don’t have clean drinking water and 2.6 billion lack access to improved sanitation. The absence of these resources poses a significant challenge for development and security around the world, reinforcing a cycle of poverty and instability that represents both a humanitarian disaster and a national security threat.

“We can improve access to clean water by improving leadership and accountability,” said Blumenauer. “We don’t have to spend millions searching for a cure, because something as simple as teaching the value of washing hands or providing access to basic technology we already have is all it takes to save millions of lives. Without asking for any increase in funding, the Water for the World Act puts in place a new set of priorities for our foreign assistance programs that will make them more effective at delivering the help that many so desperately need.”

“Water is key to just about every kind of development,” said Poe. “If we don’t get water right, it doesn’t matter how many schools we build or vaccines we pass out- we might as well throw our money down the drain. This bill is about using taxpayer dollars more effectively by making water a priority in any development discussion- like it should be.”

Children are most vulnerable to water-related diseases: 90% of all deaths caused by diarrheal diseases are among children under 5 years of age, mostly in developing countries. In all, 1.8 million children under the age of 5 die every year, more than from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. The economic impacts are devastating: in India alone, inadequate sanitation costs $53.8 billion every year, or 6.4 percent of the country’s GDP.

This legislation drives our development assistance programs to provide a greater, more effective role in providing access to clean water and sanitation. Building upon the success of the 2005 Water for the Poor Act, this bill enhances the capacity of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department to play a greater, more effective role in development assistance as well as mitigate cross-border conflict. The bill:

• Elevates the existing position of the Global Water Coordinator within USAID to integrate and implement water strategies, and deliver aid more effectively;

• Elevates the existing position of the Special Advisor for Water Resources within the State Department to coordinate the diplomatic policy of the U.S. with respect to global freshwater issues;

• Increases the sustainability of water, sanitation and hygiene projects to ensure that our investments continue to provide benefits over the long-term;

• Increases country-ownership of water, sanitation and hygiene projects to ensure that our foreign assistance dollars meet the needs of poor local communities, rather than officials in Washington; and

• Increase transparency of aid and creating monitoring and evaluation standards that focus on impact to ensure USAID and the State Department can identify and utilize best-practices.

WASH NGOs in North America and Europe have elected Thilo Panzerbieter, founder and executive director of the German Toilet Organization, to be the new northern civil society representative to the international steering committee for Sanitation and Water All (SWA), the global network of governments and other organizations committed to expanded WASH access in developing countries.

Three very qualified candidates from the WASH sector were nominated, and in online voting the week of July 15 Panzerbieter was selected as representative and Dennis B. Warner of Catholic Relief Services (US) was selected as alternate. The election process and announcements were made by End Water Poverty, based in London, and MWA, based in Washington.

At the urging of the U.S-based WASH sector, USAID recently announced its formal membership in the partnership on behalf of the US government.

Panzerbieter, a civil engineer who has worked for a range of NGOs in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe, has also been a steering committee member of End Water Poverty since 2011. He devised and managed the main awareness raising and advocacy campaign of the International Year of Sanitation, in collaboration with UN-Water. Since then, he was one of the key drivers in initiating the “German WASH-Network” and a WASH working-group within VENRO, the umbrella organization of development NGOs in Germany.

http://www.asme.org/kb/news—articles/articles/global-impact/clean-water-and-sanitation-come-to-honduras

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“This is exciting for us because IRC is so highly respected around the world for its leadership in research and analysis of the growing water and sanitation sector,” said MWA Executive Director Rafael Callejas.

“The international development community recognizes IRC’s leadership in knowledge management, an area of enormous importance to MWA and its members. Our new formal association with IRC will build on the valuable working relationship we have had for years.”

IRC Director Nico Terra emphasized how IRC’s expertise complements the work of MWA’s 11 implementing NGO members.  “IRC does not directly provide WASH services. Therefore we are keen to work with those who do,” Terra said.  “The MWA partnership brings together a very interesting group of organizations with significant capacity to implement WASH projects in various parts of the world. We believe that IRC’s particular niche in the sector and our way of working is complementary to the strengths of the MWA partners and will add to the impact of their interventions. “

IRC is headquartered in The Netherlands, and works with a worldwide network of organizations to achieve equitable and sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. IRC’s roots are in advocacy, knowledge management, and capacity building.

Established in 1968 by the Dutch government on the request of the World Health Organization as a WHO Collaborating Centre, IRC is now an autonomous, independent not-for-profit NGO with around 65 staff members at headquarters, and nearly 120 staff members conducting activities in a dozen focus countries, including Burkina Faso, Ghana, Honduras, India, Mozambique, and Uganda.

“We are extremely pleased to have Pure Water for the World as part of MWA because of its demonstrated strength in hygiene education and local solutions,” said MWA Executive Director Rafael Callejas. “Pure Water is committed to high standards of transparency and sustainability, a core part of the MWA mission as well.”

Last month, MWA announced the addition of the IRC – International and Sanitation Centre, based in the Netherlands, as another affiliate member of MWA. The addition of Pure Water and IRC bring to 13 the number of organizations that are part of the Alliance today.

“I am thrilled that Pure Water for the World is able to contribute its experience and resources to the Millennium Water Alliance,” said Pure Water Executive Director Carolyn Meub. “We will all benefit in sharing best practices, and Pure Water will bring to the table its ‘boots on the ground’ experience in very rural and very underserved regions of the developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Pure Water was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Rutland, Vermont, with a US staff of three and a field staff in Honduras and Haiti numbering more than 25. Many Pure Water employees were born and raised in the communities they now proudly serve.

Critical to program sustainability is an emphasis on hygiene and sanitation education, as well as ongoing program monitoring in an effort to continually improve program efficacy. Community programs frequently include treatment for parasites and follow-up monitoring.

MWA’s membership includes 13 major WASH implementers, mostly headquartered in the United States: CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Food for the Hungry, Global Water, IRC – International Water and Sanitation Centre, Lifewater International, Living Water International, Pure Water for the World, Water Aid in America, Water For People, Water Missions International, Water.org, and World Vision. MWA has a full-time professional staff headquartered in Washington, DC, and its Board of Directors is composed of its member NGOs.

The Alliance was founded in 2002 to create opportunities for consortium programming, to help members share best practices and technologies, and to advocate for greater US commitment to improving WASH access for the world’s poorest people.

MWA’s members now operate WASH programs in nearly 85 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, with diverse funding from governments, multilateral institutions, foundations, corporations, and individuals. At this time, MWA directly manages several major consortium programs for its members in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Central America.

As part of The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation’s commitment to helping create sustainable communities, it announced today the launch of Replenish Africa Initiative’s (RAIN) Multiple Use Water Improvements project.

“At Coca-Cola, we recognize that by strengthening the communities we serve, we strengthen our business. We know that providing water access is an effective way of expanding social and economic opportunities for our communities. As part of our Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN) we collaborate with partners from civil society and government to improve the access, sustainability and affordability of safe water in our communities,” said Peter Njonjo, Coca-Cola General Manager for Eastern Africa.

The program will support water supply improvements and multiple uses of water (MUS); improve water access, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in schools, institutions, and households; and empower women through water-related entrepreneurship, in seven rural woredas of three Ethiopian regions.

Funded by The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation in partnership with Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (CNHF) and Millennium Water Alliance (MWA), Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Water Aid and World Vision, this year-long project is expected to benefit 73,400 rural citizens, including 22,000 school children living in various regions of Ethiopia.

Millennium Water Alliance’s Executive Director, Mr. Rafael Callejas, hopes to harness the momentum surrounding clean water efforts by launching the project during the UN’s International Year of Water Cooperation.

“It is especially exciting to launch this program in 2013, the UN International Year of Water Cooperation. Funded by The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation and implemented in collaboration with MWA and its members this program links the strengths and capacities of government, civil society, the private sector and local communities to improve access to clean water and livelihoods in rural Ethiopia,” said Mr. Callejas.

The project is expected to leverage Millennium Water Alliance’s 13 million USD Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (CNHF) program, which is currently being implemented in 25 Woredas in 4 regions by deepening CNHF’s WASH interventions in three critical areas: improvements in multiple uses of water (MUS), water access, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) coverage in schools and health clinics and women’s empowerment through water‐related entrepreneurship.

About RAIN

In 2009, The Coca-Cola Company announced a six-year, $30 million commitment to provide access to safe drinking water to African communities through RAIN. As the flagship initiative of The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (TCCAF) and in partnership with other donors, RAIN will provide at least 2 million Africans with access to clean water by 2015.

Grant period: 2010-2015 (6 years)

Program Description: RAIN supports a wide range of water-related projects in response to Africa’s significant challenges in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on water. Projects are designed to meet specific community needs including water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); productive use of water; and watershed protection.

Implementation: RAIN currently supports 45 projects in 28 countries across the African continent and will launch over 100 water programs across Africa by 2015.

About The Coca Cola Africa Foundation

Any good we secure for ourselves is uncertain until it is secured for us all. This is the fundamental belief of The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, which exists primarily to invest in corporate social investment projects that help to create sustainable communities so that this dream of a common future can be realized.

 The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation was established in 2001 as an African community foundation in response to the growth and impact of the HIV pandemic. In 2002, The Foundation and Africa-based Coca-Cola bottlers established the most extensive employee healthcare program for HIV/AIDS and related conditions in Africa.

 Once The Coca-Cola System successfully funded the workplace HIV/AIDS programs, The Foundation redirected its HIV efforts to solely fund prevention and awareness services for communities.

 As part of its mission to strengthen and empower African communities, The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation also formed partnerships with local grassroots and international non-governmental organizations to deliver HIV/AIDS education and prevention.

 The Foundation’s community activities focus on four key areas central to life in Africa: water, health, education and entrepreneurship. By providing assistance in the most critical areas of need, we strive to improve the quality of life for communities in Africa and expand the opportunities for those who live there.

 Additionally, The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation is involved in humanitarian assistance in Africa, for disaster relief and emergency assistance.

The workshop capped off the first anniversary celebration of the U.S. Water Partnership, a coalition of government agencies, academia, NGOs, and the private sector which MWA joined this year. Other panelists sharing the stage at the event included representatives of USAID, iDE, Winrock International, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, World Vision, and Conservation International.

Daniel emphasized that MWA has adopted MUS as an institutional strategy and gave specific examples from the field. MUS, defined by MWA member IRC as “a participatory, integrated and poverty-reduction focused approach …[that] takes people’s multiple water needs as a starting point for providing integrated services,” is a model that the U.S. Water Partnership promotes as combined water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and poverty reduction strategy.

“While MWA’s programs several years ago didn’t necessarily call MUS “MUS,” it was happening naturally, so we started supporting it in our programs at a small scale”, Daniel said, explaining how MWA started on its path towards applying MUS principles. “In our most recent programs in Kenya and Ethiopia, we have moved MUS up to the level of full-fledged strategy.”

A key piece is incorporating MUS into monitoring and evaluation systems.In December 2012, MWA’s completed its first monitoring round in Ethiopia to expressly include MUS indicators. Results showed that 20% of MWA-sponsored water schemes were actively using multiple use infrastructure, and about 140 cows were being watered per scheme, per day.

The next step in deepening MWA’s MUS strategy in Ethiopia is a joint initiative with The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation that launched on April 12 in Addis Ababa. Over the next two years, MWA and its members will leverage their previous efforts to realize the great potential for MUS for income generation among water users, and therefore as strategy to promote water system sustainability. In addition to improving basic infrastructure to increase available water quantity, this program will take the extra step to incubate small-scale entrepreneurs and link them with mircofinance institutions to encourage water-related income generation.

“Like all of our members, we [as a WASH NGO] are entering the age of stimulating the provision of sustainable water service rather than just executing projects,” Daniel noted. “We see Multiple Use Water Services as crucial to delivering in this new paradigm.”