10th Roundtable on Financing Water: Regional meeting on Africa 22-23 Novembre 2023, Abidjan – Côte d’Ivoire

During his speech at the tenth round table on water financing: regional meeting on Africa on November 22 and 23, 2023 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, the president of the World Water Council, Loic Fauchon, made three proposals.

"I would like to very briefly set out a few proposals, some of which may sound familiar to you, since I mentioned them at the opening of the 9th World Water Forum in Dakar in March 2022.

First of all, there is the question of debt.  To get out of the debt trap. 

We are calling for the cancellation of water debt for the poorest countries and local authorities. Debt threatens to create an additional global development emergency, in the same way that the pandemic aggravated the economies of countries that were already weak. 

We also propose to encourage national governments to establish principles of sub-sovereignty as part of decentralisation to give local and regional authorities the opportunity, capacity and power to go to international markets for water loans.

And finally, we would like to propose a mechanism or standard for financing water projects, which would give greater value to projects that go beyond simple access to water. Indeed, investing in water will have positive and virtuous impacts on many aspects (food, health, education, etc.). And allow progress for the right to water."

Find full speech in attach.