The Water and Sanitation Program-Africa (WSP-AF), the OECD and the EU Water Initiative's (EUWI) Finance Working Group have agreed to support the development of a financing strategy for water infrastructure in at least one African country. WSP-AF and the OECD have both developed financing models, FEASIBLE and SWIFT, respectively, which they presented at a joint technical meeting held in Paris, France [1].

OECD has used the FEASIBLE model [2] to develop financing strategies for environmental infrastructure in mostly urban contexts in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. FEASIBLE uses unit costs based on key variables (e.g. pipe sizes) to estimate programme costs.

WSP-Africa’s SWIFT model [3] was designed to support the long-term financial planning of the African water sector, within the context of emerging sector programs, sector-wide approaches (SWAps) and decentralisation reforms. The SWIFT model estimates programmes costs and also facilitates public finance modelling of government and donor transfers.

[1] Alternative tools and methodologies to support policy dialogue on finance strategy for water supply and sanitation. PDF file

[2] OECD: Environmental Financing Strategies

[3] See for example: Ethiopia water supply sector resource flows assessment. PDF file

Web page: IRC - Financing and Cost Recovery

Contact: Kameel Virjee, WSP-Africa, wspaf@worldbank.org

Source: Access, 13 Sep 2007