The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) convened a meeting on Financing and Pricing Water in the context of the recent Global Forum on Sustainable Development (1-2 December 2008) to look at the roles of government, the private sector and civil society in managing this key resource for human and economic development. Participants in the meeting discussed the policy conclusions and recommendations emerging from a two-year OECD Horizontal Water Programme with a view to preparing it to be launched at the 5th World Water Forum, which will be held in Istanbul, 16-22 March 2009.
Two DAC-STAT products were presented at the meeting:
Measuring Aid to Water Supply and Sanitation: This note contains statistics on Official Development Assistance (ODA) for water supply and sanitation. It presents the key findings of the publication CRS Aid Activities in Support of Water Supply and Sanitation, 2001-2006 which was produced by the DAC Secretariat in collaboration with the World Water Council.
Donor Profiles on Aid to Water Supply and Sanitation: This report contains individual donor profiles covering both statistical and policy aspects of DAC members’ aid to the water supply and sanitation sector. It is an extract from the above-mentioned publication. For more information about DAC statistical work on aid for water supply and sanitation see www.oecd.org/dac/stats/water.
According to the press release for the event: “Though the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) call for the proportion of people without access to safe water and basic sanitation to be halved by 2015, many countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, are not on track to meet these goals. OECD analysis shows that aid to the water sector has risen since 2001, after a decline in the late 1990s, and now accounts for about 9% of donor aid. But much of this aid flows to countries that are already developing well, while the share of aid to the water sector in sub-Saharan Africa has declined from 22 to 17% during 2001-2006.”
Source: DACnews, Dec 2008
