USA (donor profile)
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See also: USAID | US State Department
Contents |
2005 Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act
A "consultative" strategic planning process involving US-AID/State Dept. towards operationalizing the 2005 Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act, which UNDP contributed to at a "brainstorming" held in DC back in April 08, has been completed mid 2008 and the State Dept recently issued its 2008 report to Congress which outlines both past activities and the broad strategic objectives going forward; see the report attached at the bottom, or on-line for further background.
2008 Report to the Congress - Summary
(by Andrew Hudson; 14 Jul 08)
- All UNDP regions present opportunities – except Latin America and the Caribbean (Haiti only). Opportunities in EECCA may be limited as well (only Georgia, Armenia, Kosovo) and we are in effect already benefiting from US-AID co-finance through the Kura-Aras river basin program. Africa, Asia and Arab States present much wider possibilities for cooperation.
- In addition to water supply and sanitation, the strategy includes objectives related to both IWRM and shared waters.
- The strategy includes capacity building, institutional strengthening and regulatory reform, and partnerships as key element of US approach, all in line with our focus on governance reform vs. service delivery.
- The strategy recognizes philosophical change (p.70) reflecting US-AID having "learned over the past several decades" that investments in policy and legal reforms, building local capacity and strengthening water resources planning, management and governance yield more lasting change than investments in infrastructure.
- Partnership opportunities underscore importance of "significant matching resources or other value-added contributions".
- Interpretation (by Andrew Hudson, 14 Jul 08)
- "I have asked Aaron Salzberg from US State Dept, if he can provide any further insights as to how UNDP might access some of this funding, in any of our 3 programme areas (WSS, IWRM, TBW) and will share with you anything useful he provides. But my general understanding (as I’ve mentioned previously) from talking to US-AID folks at the gathering in DC earlier this year is that, within this broad programming framework and country allocations, the local missions have a fair amount of discretion in how they utilize the resources, and often have very limited local technical capacity in the water area, underscoring the importance of interested COs being encouraged to initiate dialogue with these offices. This would obviously be a priority in particular for COs that have expressed interest in the current WatSan governance initiative but can’t be funded due to the limited Sida funds for the global WSS Assessment Programme".
Resources, Links
