NEWS from ANEAS - Exchange between utilities of the U.S. and Mexico
- 15 May
- Category: News
Article by International Affairs Management, ANEAS
The Water Operators Partnerships (WOP's) programme aims to act as a cooperation network between utilities in order to improve efficiency and performance in the water and sanitation sector. Currently, the programme counts with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).
The exchange scheme between utilities is part of the work carried out by ANEAS as Coordinator of the WOP's Mexico platform, and which consists of identifying utilities that require training on any specific theme necessary to improve the utility’s performance and identify operators that due to their institutional strength can provide the required training.
ANEAS in collaboration with the International Water Association (IWA) and Walter Bishop Consulting made a call to select four staff members from different utilities to conduct technical visits to the San Diego County Water Authority, in which the utility provided training to their Mexican counterparts.
This exercise allowed for the strengthening of capacities through the implementation of two technical visits to the San Diego County Water Authority, in which the American agency provided training on various areas aimed at improving efficiency in the Mexican utility.
Invitation to join the World Urban Forum - City Changer Dialogues
- 11 May
- Category: News
In preparation for the World Urban Forum in Naples this September, UN-Habitat has launched World Urban Forum Dialogues. The online discussion will help drive the agenda at the World Urban Forum. This is your chance to bring your issues, practices, ideas to the table.
Urban water and sanitation challenges, and how WOPs can help address them, have strong links with all four of the thematic dialogue areas on the topics of:
- Sustainable Cities
- Productive Cities
- Equity and Prosperity
- Urban Planning
Barcelona, Delft and Istanbul present their bid for UN-Habitat/GWOPA
- 10 May
- Category: News
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The UN-Habitat Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA) has received three offers of hosting from renowned international institutions in response to its recent call for expressions for interest opened last month of January. The offers would see Barcelona, Istanbul, or Delft become home to the GWOPA Secretariat for the next five years. GWOPA was launched by UN-Habitat in 2007 upon the request of former Secretary General, Kofi Annan, in response to the Hashimoto Action Plan, a United Nations Secretary General Advisory Board (UNSGAB) report advising on key actions to hasten the pace of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) achievement. In it, the Advisory Board called for a global mechanism to scale up the practice of not-for-profit peer support between the world’s water and sanitation service providers – so-called Water Operators’ Partnerships (WOPs). |
WOPs Profiles – Building the Database
- 03 Apr
- Category: News
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People say lots of good things about WOPs: they are cost-effective, more sustainable, more likely to lead to improved service for the poor than their for-profit counterparts, etc…And even though its proponents are (surely!) right, they are probably relying on a mix of theory, intuition, anecdotal evidence and personal experience to make their claim. The fact is that WOPs advocates are at a disadvantage when trying to argue that the practice should receive more attention because there’s not a lot of hard documentation to weigh up the case against the standing alternatives. |
Even where there is support for WOPs, we don’t always know how to go about it. Should WOPs always take a comprehensive view or start small? Is it best to hash out a detailed agreement beforehand or develop it progressively? These unknowns stand as impediments to the uptake of effective WOPs.
One reason that so little is known about WOPs despite the fact that not-for-profit partnerships of this type have been going on for ages, is that they tend to happen in a scattered, piece-meal way, supported a little bit by a lot of different sources. Their records are similarly scattered.
GWOPA and WOP-Africa at the AfWA Congress in Marrakesh
- 23 Mar
- Category: News
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©African Water Association |
WOP Africa and GWOPA were present at the 16th African Water Association Congress in Marrakesh – Morocco- from 19 to 24 February 2012. The theme of the congress was ‘Collaborative Mechanisms and Innovations for the sustainable development of the water and sanitation sector in Africa’. The main highlights of the congress were the following; Ms Duduzile MYENI, chair of SAAWU South Africa, was elected as the new AfWA President. More than 560 people from 50 countries attended the 47 technical sessions on performance management, asset management, operations of water & sanitation systems, financing, capacity building, water safety plan and quality management. The Congress attracted 220 exhibitors. |
GWOPA and WOP-Africa co-organized a session on WOPs in Africa, in which some successful examples of South-South and North-South WOPs in the continent were presented.
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