The government of Rwanda, spearheading an African Union- (AU-) led initiative, and the African Development Bank (AfDB) signed an agreement last month aimed at providing at least €50-million ($70-million) for an Africawide resource mobilisation initiative. The initiative will finance improved access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in Africa.

Called the Kigali Action Plan (KAP), it aims to improve the livelihoods of five-million people in ten AU member States (including eight fragile States). The KAP intends to mobilise a part of the required funds by championing water and sanitation projects in Africa through a crowd-funding platform.

“The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI) Trust Fund is a strategic vehicle,” says AfDB VP in charge of agriculture, water, human development, governance and natural resources Aly Abou-Sabaa.

He says that, with €140-million contributed to date by the trust fund donors, the AfDB has been able to leverage a total of some €5-billion for rural water supply and sanitation. The AfDB, through the RWSSI Trust Fund, has provided clean water for 82-million people and improved sanitation for 57-million people.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame is championing the KAP, an initiative responding to the inaugural ‘African Water and Sanitation Report’ submitted by African water and sanitation Ministers to the AU Assembly in January 2014, which indicated that Africa would miss the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets for water supply and sanitation by gaps of 16% and 22% respectively. It also showed that expenditure was below requirements and highlighted the need to address issues hindering the implementation of Africa’s commitments towards water and sanitation.

The KAP provides a combination of the much-needed political leadership, commitment and innovation required to deliver the water and sanitation MDGs. It also focuses on the implementation of direct action at community level aimed at redressing rural household water supply and sanitation deficiencies.

The signing ceremony between the government of Rwanda and the AfDB formalises the hosting of mobilised resources by the RWSSI Trust Fund. The fund, together with contributions from the AfDB, bilateral and multilateral agencies, African governments and communities, aims to accelerate access to drinking water supply and sanitation in rural Africa in order to attain the MDG targets in 2015 and the African Water Vision targets in 2025.

Services eligible for RWSSI Trust Fund resource allocation are water supply infrastructure for off-track and fragile States, sanitation infrastructure, development of rural water and sanitation policies, and programme and project preparation, as well as capacity building and training.