Speech by H.R.H. the Prince of Orange at the 5th World Water Forum, Africa Regional Day

Thank you for inviting me and for this opportunity to make a few brief comments as Chair of the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation. My first meeting as Chair of this Board was in Africa back in December of 2006. We met in Tunis, with Ministers and members of many of the organizations represented here today. The recurrent theme was the acute need to build stronger political will to do something about the water and sanitation crisis.

In the two years and two months since, it has been amazing-and gratifying-to witness the groundswell of advocacy and sincere political commitment for water and sanitation action. Declarations made in eThekwini, Tunis, Sharm el Sheikh, and Sirte prove that a door has opened, and now we must march through it as quickly as possible. This is the key message articulated in the excellent Africa Regional Paper - it is time for "delivery on the commitments."

I fully support the Regional Paper's assertion that the most critical divide to bridge is between agreed commitments and improved lives for Africans. This divide is difficult to navigate, it is filled with obstacles, unknowns, sensitivities, entrenched interests, hidden surprises and barriers. Fortunately, we now have a collective political commitment and desire to cross this divide, and that fact fills me with hope. Let me say this. There are obstacles in the divide that we have the power and the control to change, and by we, I mean those from donor countries. We have a moral imperative to ensure that the effectiveness of our ODA is enhanced. We can make a commitment of funds, but if it takes years to move the money, with unreasonable transaction costs along the way, then we are simply not delivering. This is not fair to taxpayers in donor countries, and clearly, also not fair to the African girl who spends too much of her precious childhood fetching water for her family while the funding that could help her languishes in the pipeline.

Our Board has a global mandate, but we do focus on Africa since the greatest challenges in water and sanitation are on this continent. Africa tests our collective capacity to improve the human condition by scaling up access to clean water and getting sanitation on track. UNSGAB enjoys an open, collaborative and successful working relationship with AMCOW, the African Development Bank and the AU and we would like to build on all the key messages to the 5th World Water Forum as outlined in the Regional Report.

First, we will support you to "progress towards the meeting of African Water Ministers and Finance Ministers with development partners." This is a proposal we have discussed in the past, and in future UNSGAB will help convene this session. We believe this session will encourage governments to increase budget allocations for water and sanitation. We can also identify solutions to enhance the catalytic effect of ODA. Better leveraging of ODA is critical given the severity of the current financial crisis. In addition, through the Global Water Operators Partnership Alliance, we are working on linking utilities to local capital markets which is essential for the long term sustainability of public water and sanitation facilities in Africa. Water Operator's Partnerships are also essential for capacity building and sharing the best practices on a non-profit basis between the utilities across Africa. We believe such Partnerships could be considered during this proposed session.

Second, we must maintain intense pressure to translate the increased attention and enthusiasm for sanitation into more latrines, toilets and sanitation infrastructure. You have our full support on the key message "to progress on the 2008 EThekwini Declaration." This is a declaration which commits countries to specific actions including the promise to develop national sanitation and hygiene policies by this year. This is a declaration with teeth, and our members are poised to support, cajole, and remind governments that they must now get down to the hard work of delivering safe sanitation to their citizens.

AMCOW is a unique institution and it has been a driver behind building the political will for water action in Africa. And so, third, we will support the key message "to strengthen AMCOW's secretariat to play a stronger coordination role." To do this, along with our other commitments, we have created a special working group on Africa, which is chaired by my colleague Poul Nielson.

I would like to congratulate AMCOW and the African Development Bank on an insightful and straightforward Regional Paper. The messages are honest and inspired, yet at the same time highly practical. We have lots of work to do. And on behalf of our Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, I can assure our African colleagues that we are ready to work with you.
I wish you all a very inspiring African Water Day with as outcome a resolution for the crisis; the Water and Sanitation Crisis.