Water for Finance: Youth dialogue on Investments, Financing, Innovation and Impact

Afternoon everyone. Uh thank you. Welcome to this youth dialogue on investments for water financing innovation um and impact. My name is Hadi Toué Gindo. I am president and co-founder of Afro which is a youthled youth supporting organization based in Mali and it is my pleasure to moderate today's conversation. So this dialogue is organized as part of uh the global youth movement for water and UN major group for children and youth initiative. Um it is part of a bigger capacity development series. This is the fourth session. Uh there has been some uh webinars in the past on the different interactive dialogues themes and this is all uh subscribed to the 2026 UN water conference. um that will take place in December in Abu Dhabi. So the goal of these capacity building series is that you ask all the questions during this webinar so that you are ready um you are ready uh for the conference if you're about to take part. So we talk a lot about the financing gap in the water sector. So public resources are restrained and constrainted um especially when it comes to youth financing right. So development assistant alone cannot close uh the gap. Private capital remains a small share of water sector um investment in priorities in developing countries. But for many young professionals, entrepreneurs and youth organizations, the question is more immediate like what does water finance actually mean for us? If you are a young person attending um the UN water conference and a session and the interactive dialogue in Abu Dhabi in a few months, what are you going to learn from that and what what are you taking away from that discussion? So that is a practical conversation we hope to have today and we look at both sides of the investment questions. How do we mobilize more financing for water globally and how do we make the money already available um work better and be more efficient for a greater impact. So just sharing how some housekeeping rules uh please place questions in the chat throughout. Um so we have reserved about 30 minutes in the Q uh questions and answers. Um and we will try to group similar questions. So my colleague Yaya will make sure to monitor the chat for similar questions and um take on the end. If we have more time, we'll open the floor for real time questions as well. Um so without further ado, I would like to welcome Dr. Amad Gay for his opening remarks. Um it is my pleasure to welcome Dr. Amadu Gay, senior wash expert and deputy uh sherpa for the Republic of Sagal and I just had a power outage. Amazing. Um for the UN water conference uh in 2026. So as Sagal prepares to co-host uh the conference, Dr. Gay is particularly well placed to help us understand how young African professionals can engage in the momentum that is building around the process. So a young professional may hear about the UN water conference financing dialogue, investment programs and global initiatives but still ask where are the actual opportunities and how do I find them? So I have the main question to ask uh Dr. Gale which is how can young African professionals and organizations uh use the preparations towards the 2026 conference to become better informed about financing opportunities for their projects and initiatives. The floor is yours Dr. Amedu. >> Thank you Hadi for this nice photo but also you can ask me the question as a young professional. I'm still younger. Thank you. Thank you. I really happy to to join you today on Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can hear you >> correctly. Okay. >> Uh really happy to to join this uh this webinar. I think this the third or the the forefront. uh firstly it uh express the the commitment but also the the engagement of the global youth in general but also the the African uh youth on this on this on this process. Uh I I know this process give us just a momentum that maybe to raise the action that you already have. we is not uh in a way to to create the new one but I think we are already there in this conference give us the opportunity uh to spotlight what we are doing but also to create new initiative that can be aligned on this conference. Uh as you know this conference is about accelerating uh SDG6 uh the SDG related to access to water and and sanitation. Globally you know we we have this crisis of access to water and sanitation. But if you look at closely the the report but also the figure we see the the crisis the challenges is more located in the in the global south. uh where we have also the most young uh generation or people uh when we when we show the the global the the the global population. Uh it's mean that the the the place that the young people can play on that because they must be the the most one that be can be affected uh on when we uh lack water and sanitation but because we we are working we are talking about maybe access to to school when young girls go for for carrying water water but also if they do not have maybe some real disposion when they have this in agent issue uh it's point that the the young people is really involved on on on those process but if come really to to make program to to make process uh we need really to involve them on on on on those process uh it's uh why if I may respond to to discussion regarding the process is about the commitment uh but I think this commitment go on on the both side the commitment of the youth but the commitment only cannot maybe be enough to give them how we can also give them a space um to to to to translate the commitment they they have and this space not just to to give them room and have maybe webinar on like that but how to involve them on those process when scams I think I I'm just I I talk about Muhammad from UNESCO yesterday also Alexia I say mostly if you see people talking about youth on on the speech Dana we we need youth for innovation. We know we need youth for this. But the question they we must ask ourself if those youth you are addressing this question are them ready for for for innovation. Are them ready really to to to play those those role? I think that the investment can go on on that how we can invest on the readiness of the youth to play the role that really we are pulling on them. Uh and this conference this uh give maybe the opportunity uh to to really to raise the the discussion. It's not maybe the place to to to answer all the question but also is a place that we can ask the right question because we have the the the mobilization of the the the global youth actor uh where we can really hear here on on that it's why I I I will take maybe the question on angle how to to invest when we when we when we talk about investment I I think when you open had you talk about that the gap of of investment is is is real that we we we know we know how many billion we need for for for that but the gap but the master uh also question that another fundamental question that we we we can ask how we turn those investment into result it's I think it it is the the main question that we been and the answer is uh investment in and water and sanitation are only effective when we have the human capacity to design implement to operate but also to maintain uh and also innovation around around them. Uh this mean that uh investing in water is also investing in in people and above all it means investing in in in young people. Uh on that young people are not only the water professional of today uh or of tomorrow but they are already entrepreneur. We we have some entrepreneur there. We have some engineer, we have some researcher, uh we have also some leaders. How we can develop solution today for for water challenge? It uh mean also investing uh for more efficiency because when we we do investment the most question is how we can be efficiency and sustainable and impactful. And therefore we we we must invest in the readiness of the capacity of young people today. uh giving them access to a skill finance technology network and also decision making space it it's really I will I will I will point there how we can bring them on the table where where we make decision because they they must be also there this is particularly important to can also your in your question on the global south where I you see young people represent a large share of the of the population while those country where those those young people are are very important also face great challenge in in accessing basic water and sanitation and hygien and and those those things. This situation I think represent both a challenge but also an an opportunity and the question is how we can maybe turn those challenge to to opportunity. For that we need really a strong commitment to turn the demographic dividend into in in into water innovation dividend. Uh and for that we need space. Uh for for me the initiative church the global youth movement for water can play an important role in this effort by creating strong link between young people in also innovator. We should go further by developing mechanism for monitoring capacity building access to finance and also support youth fleet in innovation. uh uh the 26 UN water conference uh we discussion on water finance must therefore >> I don't have anything to deceive you on of course >> how much we invest but the right question is we we we can ask ourself uh must or where where where where how do we invest in the people who will transform those resource into impact I think you you are linking investment and and and and and impact. Uh but when we invest who who who will turn this this investment impact uh because we there there will be no efficiency investment in water without the people capable of of delivering it. No sustainable innovation without young innovator and no effective response to tomorrow's water challenge without investing in in in youth today. Uh before concluding uh I I know I have just five minutes. I would like to sincerely thank all of you uh and your partner for the this initiative but also the contribution you are bringing uh to this process particularly through your reflection on different interactive dialogue. uh I I remember I I I I opened the dialogue about uh water for people and uh today we are discussing about water for for for investment but as a co-host of the conference we we are really welcoming uh your contribution very positively. uh we are also committed to to to do we will do our best to create a space uh for young people to share the your idea experience and recommendation and to ensure uh that the voice and meaningful reflection will be uh appear in in the conference but I I would really like to invite you uh to take the next step. I think the reflection is good but also we we need also to go move forward also to take another next step to think about how those ideas and recommendation can be translated into action. Uh the real uh test of our commitment will be at the local level uh where water and sanitation challenge are experienced every day with community and particularly at last miles where the most vulnerable population continue to face the great barrier to accessing those basic service. Uh we therefore encourage young people not only to contribute to the global discussion also to reflect uh on the mechanism partnership and innovation that can help bring the solution to communities and create real and lasting improvement in the life of the most vulnerable. Uh this is where the true impact of our investment will be ultimately be measured. Thank you again for your engagement, your ideas and commitment. We look forward to working with you as we move from dialogue to action and from global commitment to local impact. Uh let us invest in water but let us invest in innovation. But lastly above all let's invest in the young people who will turn this investment into impact. And thank you for your attention. >> Thank you very much Dr. Gay and I very much enjoy what you said about empowering the youth and really making sure as a co-host that they are part of the process and also beyond the conference. So thank you again um thank you for always championing the youth being a young person yourself. So we will now unpack um that investment ecosystem from three complimentary perspective. Uh to open our main discussion, we are very pleased to welcome Chedd Moripe, chief director for global cooperation and strategic partnerships at South Africa's Department of Water and Sanitation and Sherpa of the Republic of South Africa for interactive dialogue f investment for water for the UN water conference. JD brings extensive experience across water governance, international cooperation and strategic partnerships as focal person uh for the Africa water investment program and co-chair representative of the ID on investment. He is closely involved in shaping the investment conversations ahead of the conference. So we will start um again with the big picture and J um the floor is yours as well. is shady here. Let me see from the list. >> Adis, sorry. Uh, I just uh got a message from from her. She say she just come out of minister ministering meeting. She she come soon but now she's not with us. >> Okay. Okay. Um it's okay to zoom in and then zoom back out again. That's part of the process. So um I know um let's say we will pass it over to Nicholas uh whose intervention is really about closing the financing gap more money and better use of money. So joining us is Nicholas Tandi, global head of water at SNV. Is Nick here? Let's see. I'm seeing people have a bit of difficulties uh joining the session. Yeah, I don't think Nick is here yet. So, we'll do I see Pratish. So we'll pass it over to Pratish um on the promising pilot to investment ready solutions. Our next speaker um let's uh we're getting there is Pratish Prasad impact and knowledge management um knowledge management officer at Aqua for all. Pratish brings close to a decade of experience across invest is invisory impact investing developing finance with experience spanning India, Africa and Southeast um Asia. His works uh his work focuses on investment and impact investment assessment portfolio monitoring and helping promising water and sanitation solutions strengthen their impact and of course scaling. So that makes his perspective especially relevant to one of the most practical questions for our audience today. How do you move from just a promising idea or a pilot to something that is willing to be financed by institutions? So uh Pratish if you're here I'm ready we're here for you. >> Yes I'm here. Um I was thinking of doing a bit of free flow conversation. Um so no slides but if you want slides I have them I can send it to you later but I think for the ease of conversation and accessibility I think probably talking through it uh is helpful. Um so today I think my larger focus is also to speak to the youth because I also bring some experience in my previous uh roles where I have also worked with uh UNICEF and a lot of youth uh related strategies. So I really see a lot of potential um in youth and youthled organizations to um to really work on the water and sanitation solutions from from various angles and uh above all water and sanitation is uh is a local problem to solve for. So uh no ma matter uh how we channel funding from other places uh the delivery all of that has to be really local. Um so that is where I think youth really have a lot of role to play. Now before going to um all of um the specificities uh I think we all understand why this sort of conversation matters. Now we are all aware of uh the financing gap that exists and how much uh work is needed still to make sure that everyone has access to water and sanitation. And um other challenges that we also see in especially in the emerging markets is that where there are already infrastructure and connections available they are also facing uh challenges in terms of um non-revenue water efficiency aging infrastructure um and I think to solve for all of this the biggest asset that we really have uh looking at global south and especially Africa uh is the uh demographic dividend as um Dr. K just uh mentioned. Um and another challenge that we have is the traditional funding sources are shrinking. Uh so typically grant funded uh missions and grant funded solutions to a lot of these problems uh are not sustainable anymore. So we have to start looking at uh solutions that are that could be revenue generating, self- sustaining uh and can eventually attract more um more private finance to scale and be able to reach um everyone uh that requires it. So now when we think about wash uh as a sector it is often uh that we look at it as a monolith which is this big infrastructure that is delivering water to people and uh that also makes it a bit more difficult to place uh smaller youthled organizations and movements in uh in response to such uh such an infrastructure project, right? So, how do you sort of bring it together? So, if you look at it more from a value chain point of view, you would understand that there is one entire operation of you know extraction, delivery, operations, maintenance and all of that. Uh that is one side of the equation. Then there is uh all the uh aligned allied functions which has to do with data monitoring um which uh ensuring quality ensuring um efficiency of the services. Uh that is one part of it. Second is all the technology that is required for this. Uh in a lot of times we are dependent on uh foreign vendors and foreign technologies that both make it expensive to source uh uh in local fluctuating currency situations uh and all of that that could uh make it really challenging. uh so finding alternatives to those um can uh can open up uh some more opportunities for uh sort of younger organization. Then there is this entire piece of systems policy and advocacy uh which is um a making general population aware of uh the need for uh safe uh drinking water and especially safe sanitation and how it has multiple uh layered roles to play in improvement of quality of life opportunities especially for women. Um, sorry, I was looking at the chat. Uh, probably Elanar, I can come back to it a bit later. I think one of the uh or if you quickly want an answer to it, I think um there are organizations that engage uh young people for water quality testing or data collection and things like that. I I can't recolct uh which organization that was but probably uh I can relate back um at a later point but I was also aware of some of the school projects at Hadi you were mentioning about uh where young children are involved in uh some of these work um so where was yeah system policy and yeah yeah so one part is to making the community themselves aware of uh the necessities uh or demanding uh quality water and sanitation services and how that impacts people's lives uh and the benefits of it so that there is a viable business case for people to start offering these things. Um so um that can really create uh a demand not just for private services but also That could also create um demand from the local uh regulators and local uh representatives to address this at the policy level uh create things to to happen. Now what are these things that needs to happen right? So whenever now we were talking about making solution scale from pilot to uh to a sustainable model. Um so usually pilots get funded from say grant money. Um and the moment you are moving to scale, you require multiple times of the same um multiple times the same u capital that probably you invested in pilot. And for that to happen during pilot, there are a lot of things that you already need to have in place. And at at the stage of a pilot itself, you have to start thinking about how are we going to make uh revenue in a way it is also going to be affordable to people that we are going to serve it. And that is uh that is one part of it that revenue model you need to uh figure out test out if it is acceptable by the um local community when you're operating. And then are you also mapping out uh not just the infrastructure and scale that is required to scale that pilot but also the associated systems. So you would require uh experienced people and talent for when you want to operate at a scale which is very easy to do when you're doing a pilot because uh you need fewer people. You can kind of also get those things done by having a consultant or a consulting agency working on it. But the moment you have to scale this, you need to quickly require a lot of talent at scale. So if you don't already foresee that and start investing in some of those things uh leveraging some solutions to get you to get trained on some of these things where you already planned to take this project at a scaling phase that could become very challenging uh and may not really fare uh as you expected before. Third is um the process and data systems. So during pilot you also have to think about what are the data that you're going to collect and again the difference comes in when you're doing a pilot uh the scale of operations is smaller the cost of collecting data processing it all of that uh looks very different than when you have to do the same thing at a scale uh so how are you going to invest in a system um without that the the cost of all these auxiliary functions also growing as as the project is growing otherwise then the scale scaled model of the same thing will not have the similar uh financial uh or unit economics. So the the margins that you're expecting are already thin when you are operating in a affordable revenue range and on top of it if you add all these costs which are going to increase by multiples of it it will stop being um being viable for somebody to put money. Now the third thing is also not every entity is fundable by all kinds of capital. Uh so probably a pilot is hosted in inside a cor inside an entity which is say is a nonprofit entity which can accept grants. uh but the moment you need investments you need an entity where people can become shareholders. So you will have to look at local laws what kind of limited liability corporate entities exist and this project need to be placed within such an entity so that you can actually attract uh investments and make them shareholders in your company. Uh and the other part of it is if it is going to be uh more banking solutions and banking solutions you have to look at what are the local banking laws what kind of loan products are available and for that do you require to have a lot of collateral is your business really uh something that can have these kind of collaterals and you start building some of those things uh at that stage. So those are the things that you can sort of do at the when you're already designing pilot or you're coming towards an end that how to shape some of the things already so that it is geared towards scale and you're not thinking about okay after this pilot we are going to start something new and raise funding for that pilot and given the trend how the funding is going it is also going to be challenging in the future to get similar kind of funding for same kind of work, right? So a lot of grant for again doing a lot of nonprofit work could be could be challenging. Now an enterprise can do a lot at their own level uh to set it up but that that still is not enough for for at scale to mobilize money. There are also uh barriers at market and instrument level. There are barriers at system level. What we spoke about just now are all the barriers that we see at the enterprise level and we can already plan and address them. But what the other thing we have to look for in the market is um the kind of ask of money that we have the that is the ticket size of it. How much money are we going to ask and what kind of money are we asking? Is it a grant um or something in between or up your commercial terms and the timeline of it? All these things have to then fit the needs that we have at the enterprise level. So that is another sort of matching exercise um that as an enterprise you can try to do it but if something is not available that makes it very difficult. So what you see from the global north a lot of capital that comes in usually comes with bigger ticket sizes but relatively maybe smaller timelines which does not really fit it. So those are the things also to think about maybe build a consortium which can accept this bigger ticket size and subcontract and you know solving for that. Now the third and the largest barrier is at the policy level uh because water especially is governed by the local tariff laws uh which itself is a very political topic. Um so getting it to reflect at least the cost that goes into providing services uh can be an uphill task. So that is also some of the areas where youth level youthled advocacy and all of that can play some role uh to make more reasonable regulations around tariffs. Then the other part is how the capital market laws themselves are structured in a country. How easy it is for foreign investors to bring money of various kinds, have ownership in uh companies locally. How easy it is for to once they make profit to take that money out of the country. These are things usually not within the scope of uh enterprises but really affects how money can come in or go out or how much we can actually mobilize for some of these things despite having the need and everything in um in place. So tying it all together in terms of taking pilot to uh say a larger stage uh I think we already spoke about what pieces you can already think of when you are designing a pilot and running it uh to uh be ready for scale. Second is I think because of the priority of the sector there are uh including the organizations like Aqua for all we have instruments um innovative instruments that target uh impact alongside uh financial returns. So it can be sing which we call social impact incentives or uh results based grants technical assistance. So keep an eye out for those kind of uh actors and instruments and opportunities uh to apply for some of these kind of funding. Um also look at um integrating again data and impact system. Say for example Matt is a free system uh which somebody can um um just requires technical capability. So you can they also provide like free trainings. You can join some of them uh have um like data oriented uh capacity built into your enterprise early on so that it becomes easier for impact focused funders uh to provide funding. uh having audited financials, um good financial management practices, SOPs uh for your processes, um clarity on the skills that you require and uh you know finding communicating that and getting talent uh developed around those thing those uh those specific skills. Uh so yeah I think uh those are the few things that um you can already start looking at um when you're thinking about pilot and trying to take it to uh to scale. >> Thank you very much Pratish and I really like your approach of having this as a conversation instead. I think uh this is where you can really pick on um people's brain and what they really think when you uh mention these big words of bankable projects investments and you know just the overall multilateral processes jargon sometimes um that we try we we use and if you uh to the participants if you have questions for Pratish please just note them down um and then we'll leave the floor uh next we were having some difficulties with some speakers that um weren't able to join I think uh thanks to uh because of the registration link. I hope now is back here. Ned, can you hear us? >> Yes, I can hear you. I'm not sure what you do. >> Yes. So I had already introduced you as a co-host for uh the interactive dialogue on investments for water uh from the South African side and you are co-hosting this with France and um we would really like to hear from your perspective. I know we zoomed in with Pratish but we'll zoom back out again and um just getting hearing Pratish and what he has to say practically from young people. You can also share what your perspectives are at a higher level. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Um and I really have to apologize to all participants on the platform uh because of some technicalities and you know meetings that goes beyond time. uh but uh firstly let me greet everyone who's here all the speakers all the uh contributors and uh I know that some of those who were on the concept are colleagues that I worked with a long time and for for many platforms that we did together I don't know if Hank is here I would like to greet him and Nick Tandi is one of the guys that I work with and um I know that we have the co-host that we are the co-chairs as South Africa and I saw Amadu is here I don't know I saw him somewhere on the list and my greetings to him as a colleague that is too tied to me now and I just want to say that it's good that this platform was put together and uh it's important actually for such platforms to be put together by youth the level that must be really concentrating on what is happening today because today determines tomorrow and uh I want to say as co-host of this important um uh ID uh we call it ID because they call this interactive dialogue. It's a dialogue that must h go on. It's a dialogue that must be consultative. It's a dialogue that allows contributions. So we have been doing this right from January after we were announced as coaches with France. We did a lot of them about eight of them. The biggest of them was the one that happened in Washington during the spring meeting there. And we got a lot of inputs right from there and in Ducham and everywhere. And I want to take you some few steps um back on what brought us as Africa. Uh I'm going to include Sagal because they were part what brought us here and I want to include Netherlands where Hank is coming from because they were part as Africa we've been going as if all is normal and we have not been able to achieve on uh providing clean water to our people as if that was normal only after the then SG UNG G decided with the well bank to put together what they called the high level panel on water which was established and had 11 sitting presidents in the panel. Uh they appointed those 11 sitting presidents. We were part as South Africa and I am happy to say that Africa had three countries that were participating there. It was ourselves, Sagal and Mauritius. And uh through the two years 2016 to 2018, we went on to engage and try to check what is the problem with the whole issue of SDG not moving because we failed to do much during the the MDGs and we we we then came into the SDGs which uh you know that we are told we are off track in terms of uh implementation of SDG6. Therefore uh that high level panel had shepherds who went on to check what is the problem in all continents because we had representatives all almost everywhere and with Africa the outcome said Africa requires a high level panel that will deal uh specifically on investments uh for water in Africa and uh I know that there was a lot of out outcomes or even recommendations for all the other um continents and areas and and countries. But Africa took that recommendation to heart. We came back and we reported to the a to the AU. We worked on it and in short that the AU appoints a panel on water which is at leadership level that would really look into this and dig down to see what is this challenge of investments for water in Africa and uh we started that in 2022. We worked on it. We took uh the resolution to the AU. It was only approved in 2011 where seven presidents came on board. Sineagal being one of them. They always have been on track and they've always taught the same line to make sure that we don't lose on what came out of the two years of investigating the challenge of water. And we came in also as as South Africa, Namibia came on board and Tanzania and and and Zimbabwe and them and that panel was established. The leaders looked into it and the AU approved it to say please go back and look into it. We started first by uh coming up with programs that were launched when Hank the Netherlands and Tajikistan hosted the first water conference in 2023. We launched that in investigative kind of program that was saying uh we must make sure that we look into this challenge and uh we we we we had to revert back and say what is this challenge and put it in front of the leaders. We even came up with a program where we award presidents who took care of this program on and and who made sure that they elevated water in their countries. That program is still on. We call it a the leadership program where we are what those who are making a difference. Every big conference where we go, I think we'll do the same when we go to the h to to the UAE to award those um leaders that we call change makers in the water sector. But then going back to the actual issue, then we started digging out what is the challenge. The challenge became that 10% of our fiscus in other countries even two to 5% it's allocated to water whether water makes a lot of maybe um money into the municipalities or every anywhere money would come out out of the revenue of water but it will pay for other things maybe electricity roads and whatever water will just get the least money that comes out of where actually the money. Therefore, the issue of taking care of instructure in infrastructure on water, the issue of paying for new infrastructure, the issue of budgeting for maintenance of of water infrastructure became a challenge and I'm not shying away from saying that we know it as Africa that that is most of the that is the biggest challenge that we have in most of the countries where infrastructure is dilapidated. We cannot maintain it because there's no budget either from the fiscals or even from uh any other uh revenue that we should come from. Even if the the budget is out that budget will be doing other things outside the water circle. Therefore that was tracked and everyone would know that last year in 2025 South Africa hosted the G20 for the first time in the African so in that we took it again from the HLPW high level panel on and say we've got this that we have to track this that we have to follow this that we have to bring to the attention of all leaders and ensure that we make change in in the water sector. We took it to the G20 and the G20 h we did not have a track. We had we had no chair on the table of the G20 to discuss water but we maneuvered we made sure that through South Africa being the president of G20. We took it through the South African presidency. We I don't know if I should say today now that we we managed to say that we put it through the window. It got to the table and it was discussed and the outcomes of G20 everyone can go and Google uh G20 2025 South African presidency you will see that it is within the outcomes of the leaders declaration we managed to put it there. It is after that that um we were ready as South Africa because we took time engaging in this from 2016 tracking it from the time of the high level panel on water to G20 to the AU and everywhere and then when Sineagal became the co-hosts they had to appoint 12 countries that would do the six thematic areas that they are dealing with and we we we raised our hand as South Africa to say that we are also ready because you had to submit and and and and and say that we are ready. We think we can handle this. As South Africa, we knew that there are five uh ideas or thematic areas that happened in 2023. They had only five. The investment on water was not there. Now we had the water for people, water for prosperity, water for planet, water for cooperation and water for multi multilateral process. I think we are now having investments for water which is a new uh idea that came in. you will agree with me that if I go back and say uh there's water for people, there can't be water for people if we don't have investments for water for people to be able to get that. When we talk about water for prosperity, it means there must be water for development, water for improvement of the lives of people. If improvement of infra, there must be prosperity, which means uh we must enrich every country. Every country must see the prosper out of the the the the availability of clean water and technologies that would be there available to ensure that we develop in terms of water. But then what do we need to do that? We need investments in the water sector. If we are say it's water for planet, we are now talking about h issues of disasters. Climate change is on our you know on our heads. Every day you go to the news, you hear about floods there, droughts there, whatever there. There's all sorts of things. Glaciers are melting. Everything is like in a mess. That requires a funding. That requires, you know, disaster funds to act on. That requires infrastructure that would be climate change resilient to be able to be there even when we get the floods tomorrow morning. We should still be able to pump water and clean water and what not infrastructure that will be swept away when we get floods and whatever. We are not saying that that would not happen but we need infrastructures for water that will uh resist and be sustainable uh more than what we seeing today. And uh when we talk water for cooperation I am worried there because that's now the transboundary issue. We all know in our regions that trans boundary is one uh area that can create battlefields. People fight for water. People hot water they stop it somewhere. It mustn't go flow to that. They don't agree this water belongs to that one. And that's where the start of wars comes. And we have been hearing in the news that where there are wars or even conflicts I can say happening we hear that people there might be deprived of water can be weaponized everybody knows that if you don't have water you not going anywhere you might not live for a certain period because our bodies are made up of water to a larger extent so water is something when people say water is life. It's true because if you are deprived water, you you you can't live for long. You can't go far. You will lose your life. Therefore, it is important for governments or leaders to make sure that the issue of cooperation is looked at and it's protected so that no one hot water or stops water from flowing to that country. downstreams and upstreams and what people must work together, rivers that we share and uh you know aifas that are that we share. We need to be able to do agreements and work together and that requires a h investments or different member states that are sharing this thing to build infrastructure that they share as South Africa if I can say even today as I'm talking I'm just coming out of a meeting we share water with lysoto a lot depends on lysoto for water 70% of the water in job and and parts of South Africa is coming from Lysoto. The infrastructure that is sitting in Lysoto is funded largely almost 80% by South Africa. Why? Because we know the importance of cooperation for water. When we talk about water on multilateral platforms it or processes it's important because we can talk about all of these things. We need a place, a platform, a house, a roof that can look into all of this and make sure that what I was just talking about to say h we need to have money to do this. We have money for the water FOR THE PEOPLE. SOMEBODY must be able to moni in a platform to say that it's happening. Yes, the investments are going. Yes, we've got infrastructure that is resistant. Yes, climate change has been responded to. We have a h awareness. We have all of these things. We have h early warning systems in countries so that people are not just swept without a warning that there's floods coming and all of those things. Therefore, all of those things h together packaged. We need investments to have this trail of interactive dialog dialogues funded. And then we can go out and say investments for water. But what are we investing for? We are investing for people to get money. We are investing for prosperity. Therefore, we find ourself um I I said what I said just to bring it clearer to you that this is one idea that is very crosscutting. It can't work for itself. We invest for all. we going going out to look for money and make sure that governance in all areas it's it's good. Uh sometimes it's not about money. There are countries that can still put up some fiscals up to do infrastructure to make sure that water reaches people but the challenge with that becomes the in the governance issue. money is getting lost. Whatever corruption and what there's no stable kind of governance processes that are happening that makes it difficult for investors even to come in to make them even move further. Therefore we we need skills transfer. That's where the youth comes in. Skills transfer must come to the youth so that going forward you are the ones who maintains this infrastructure that was invested in so that we can be able to pay back the investments. So that the investors must be sure that when we invest in this h product it will bring back the money. They will be able to pay for it because they will go back and and collect revenue. the revenue will be used uh profitably and will be used to pay back the money so that we can do something else after paying the first maybe big h investment uh thing that we took. So I I am saying this with a a heart that actually requires understanding from all of us not yourselves as youth. You must be worried about tomorrow. Worry about what we say today and what we do today to prepare tomorrow for you. Because if we take investments that we can't deal with, we are making it difficult for you tomorrow. If we take investments and not take h care of those h infrastructure uh things that we did, we making it difficult for you tomorrow because you are going to come there and find your country with big debts that you can't deal with and there's no infrastructure that you can point at. Therefore, it is important for the youth to contribute to this process to say yes, we want to see uh investments for an infrastructure that will benefit us our parents and our and us today, but still be there when we come in as leaders. Still be there when we come in as leaders. We shouldn't do investments and put things here and when we go away everything is wiped wiped off. You come in, you start from the beginning as the youth. Therefore, today is a platform or a stepping stone for your tomorrow and uh make sure that you sit on us as we engage as we consult like today h as Praep was talking. Make sure that you sit on us to represent you correctly. Make sure that you are there to make sure that you contribute and you hear your voices in what we say today because then otherwise you will not uh hold us accountable tomorrow when you come in and find things disarrayed or not waking up. Therefore uh we we are now counting minutes. We are on a countdown to come off the chairs. you will be taking the chairs uh from us. Make sure that you find the chairs seated where they are around the tables for you to be able to do that. Those who are in engineering as youth make sure that you follow and track um water for planet make sure that you know what is happening. Those who are political in mind make sure that you follow water in multilateral processes so that the UN can house water somewhere. If you know what the UN does annually or you hear about the big programs and and annually, there is always what we call CSW H commission on the status of women annually because that was identified as a problem. There is a commission annually that talks to disability. There is a commission that talks annually to issues of um issues of say population development on data on whatever everything on health and on everything. Therefore, let's make sure that there is a commission annually that tracks issues of water just like all other commissions that tracks everything. This is what uh this uh ID number five water on multilateral processes should look at. As a ID number six ourselves, we are working very closely. We are required to converge somewhere or to look at interlinkages between the IDs. We identified ID number one, water for people and ID number five, water for multilateral as the closest to us because we want somebody once the investors are saying we are available and not leaders to be able to go back and work on their policies to allow investments and work on their h ministers of finance to work on h you know their governance and you know everything that scares investors. These are leaders who can go and make sure that that happens in their countries. Therefore, it is important for us to be closer to that multilateral process because there must be somebody who's going to follow up on the recommendations that comes out of all of this like we did in 2016 to 2018. It the outcomes and the recommendation are still alive. We are still talking what we spoke uh about in 2016. We never thought we will come to this level of of talking about investments globally in in in URL next week in the UN we will be gathering leaders to launch the GIP global investment program because in Africa it's there. Our leaders endorsed it at the U AU level. We are tracking it. We are following it. We are doing a pipeline of projects. We are working together under the AU with the outpat and everyone. It is only for countries to be inquisitive and know what is happening there and make sure that they tap into that and h ensure that they are members they are their people their civilians everyone can be actually to take something out of it. Now we are going global. We are rolling it out. We are scaling it up for other leaders to come in and do that in other in other provinces. I mean in other regions and all of that. We know that in you know the world can never be the same at the same level. We've got countries that even doesn't need this. They might even think we are mad when we start talking about these things because they are at another level. The challenges at globally can be the same posed by climate change and everyone but the needs are not the same because we are not at the same level and the technology is there but we don't access it the same way and we are not at the same level on technological level. Therefore, the youth that can go out there and acquire that knowledge and train themselves to come back. Do that for the benefit of your coming generations, they must come and have change that was brought by yourselves because you started today tracking this process that must live on to make sure that all the regions Africa particularly as I'm here. I want to hear when I'm all sitting at home that you guys are still on track. You are still working on this and we we are going to win. We are going to see our grandkids living in better uh conditions, getting water from the tap that is clean. We can talk about other challenges but not a challenge of uh not worrying about development. Development is important. Hence, water for prosperity is about that. We want to see movement in what we do. I'm here for questions. I know that I came late and apologies for that. I will await questions. I listened to the presentation before me. It was very interesting and uh he spoke about a lot of things that we are looking at as the ideas. I didn't want to go into those technical issues. We have them here. Those who should talk to that and I'm happy I'm here with you. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. I think this was very inspiring. I could I could I could see and we were very motivated as well from your kind words and encouragement as a young uh people. I think Amadu has a comment and reflection on what you said. So I will leave him uh the floor. >> Yes. No just my my my sister's shady cannot introduce you without having any comment on on that shi we we really want to to thank you and also >> to recognize the great work that you are doing on on as a co-chair as an African cause of the this conference we are really proud all of cochair coming to to those the global south but mostly South Africa that the the leadership that take and you you demonstrate it. Uh you do not take talk about only the the IDF that you are sharing but also you do the cross cutting between the the the the old ideas. is mean also the the implication that you have on on that also the great experience that South Africa have on raising the issue of uh investment on on on on water at the highest level at the highest level that I think you you come on on on on that and I I share really all what you you say here but uh you know I I know you are working on on on a flagship to to see how we can raise I'm I'm as a young people I'm I'm just working for them how to place also a flagship for how you finance the project from youth the entrepreneur the water entrepreneurship I think it'll be great maybe to to see how we can explore this opportunity on on on this conference to having something some some something that are really focusing on how we can maybe finance or have uh dedicated channel or area that young people can can go and and and carry uh maybe finance to to to put their project at at this spot because they have many ideas but at this level it will be not easy for them maybe to mobilize money how we can create this facility for for young people also to have to to having this this opportunity thank you for for all and happy to to see you and I think we will be in ha inshallah but I'm not tired to see you always happy >> thank you Amadu for your inputs I I think uh this like she said in the beginning, right? These are her old friends. Uh you can't really go without each other. And um of these friends are also Nick um Jedi mentioned Nick who tried really effortlessly to join um the webinar and he was in for a few minutes and then his mic was not working unfortunately. um I don't see him again and we from exchangings in preparations for this webinar he was very keen and excited that this initiatives was taken from young people so I will really make sure that he saw us get transferred to you um unfortunately I don't see him online so we will have to move on um yes so you heard many perspectives on and we will also share share um the slides from Nick uh to the participants so you can get a a sense of what he wanted to share. So it'll be really interesting uh for us to hear from you. You've heard from uh the bigger multilateral processes. You've heard from the insight of what really happens when uh policies are being made, when countries get to talk to each other. And you also got to experience like what you uh what you need from the ground to get your idea from a pilot to a full scale project. And I think as young people there's many entrepreneurs um that really are eager to exchange and get in touch with um um our participants and participants to the panel. So I would leave the floor to first some questions that were asked in the chat. Um maybe yeah you can try to read some of the questions that weren't answered uh before and we'll try to see if Nedi and Pratish can answer them. >> Okay Adidi thank you for the floor. I think u we have some question practice try to to response that in the chat from do the speakers have any example where young leader organization have been integrated into invest in investment where I mean capital and investment projects that's the first And uh yes I think >> maybe we'll see we'll see if Pratisha has something to answer. Um you can open your mic and add um if you if you feel like >> thank you. I uh shared some examples in chat itself. So uh there are few projects for example Sanergy now it is called fresh life which was started by young MIT grads uh who run their O andM on a uh franchisee model and this franchise are run by uh young entrepreneurs. Uh similarly you have uh JIBU um in Rwanda, Kenya, DRC and Ghana. uh their model is also in a way to capitalize on young entrepreneurs. uh so they take care of a lot of uh capital part uh and runm themselves. Uh whereas uh the franchisee owners are again uh young people. Um project maji does uh these modular um solar powered uh water kiosk and how home delivery services. Uh so they raise grants from philanthropies uh to set up this for the first time but then the focus that they have is that there is community ownership of the model. So that also targets uh sort of young people as uh operators for that and they are paid from the uh revenue that they generate from sale of water. So yeah there are there are quite some uh examples. I hope that answers um Eleanor. >> Yes. Um thank you Pratish for sharing this. Uh when you talk about this I I know we have um Sanata in the team who actually just came back from Kgali. Um I know they had a full innovation track, a youth innovation track and many young uh people organi youthled organizations had the chance to to share and pitch to uh potential investors. So I'll invite her to speak and also maybe give some contribution on the topic. >> Yeah, >> good morning everyone. Uh my name is Samira. member of AFO and I would like to thank all the organizer and the speakers who really brought a really deep insight today. I think it's complete already what we have been talking in Kalia. So the youth dialogue uh was much more about highlighting the innovations uh innovations that the youth the African youth is really bringing in the sector. So we we were lucky to say um to see many you know innovation as we talk about nonrevenue water uh there were innovations about how to uh involve more the communities in the water sector. I think the main thing that came along is the the investment issue. You know many of the youth especially in the circular economy uh track we had many um innovations coming in but the youth uh was already struggling to have you know the credit or the the investment from you know it can be climate finance it can be u other sources. So we were asking the question how can the youth you know really have access to those funds and uh that was the bedroom because we have always been talking about youth capacity and I think this uh symposium highlight that the youth really already have the capacity but they need more you know space more funding you know to excel their project. So how can the youth already have like uh those joint venture um opportunities with big you know structure that already have those access to those climate finance or big investment regarding uh innovation or regarding you know advancing access to water and sanitation services. So it was really um interesting to have um the perspective of uh people that are uh already in this um investment uh how can I say channels investment structures and uh from uh today's discussion I think that I also have a question to all the the the speakers here. So how how can we advance that? How can we really take this farther? How can we really put the youth like to build more trust around the youth innovations and uh encourage even the people to use those innovation because uh one major example that came out was about the product coming from the sanitation circular economy but those product could not compete with the industrial maybe industrial project coming on the market. So they were much more lower price and uh people tend to go towards those um innovations but the circular economy uh things like the innovation brought about the youth >> maybe uh looks more >> expensive maybe to the communities but I think they also need some type of regulations to make of course. So that was my take about this in Kali and thank you again for for organizing uh this session. It was really insightful and >> thank you Satan. >> I think Nick just joined. I'll try one last time. Uh can you hear us Nick because he can actually answer the questions um that you just had. Nick has a lot of experience working with the World Bank. Um, and he just disappeared. Okay, we tried. >> We tried everyone. >> Hi, honey. Can you hear me? >> Hi. Oh my god, I'm so happy to have you, Nick. The floor is all yours. >> Yeah. Um, you know what happened, colleagues? It's um it's a total mess. I'm so sorry. The network the the the the network we have here was blocking me. So when I switched now for the network to my personal network uh I'm I'm now able to uh to speak to you. So my sincere apologies for that. Maybe what we can do is I I'm always happy to record the presentation and and send it as a as a recording if needed. >> No, we we I think I talked so much about you Nick. You can't you can't really go anywhere. You have to uh tell us what you prepared for this presentation. Yes. >> Okay. So maybe I just do a five quick quick minutes and then we can talk if that's okay. >> Yes, that's fine. >> Um all right. Uh um great to be talking to you colleagues. So on on the left what you what you see here is um what what we need finance for right on the continent. It's it's typically those three uh subsectors water supply and sanitation which gets by far the most uh financing for obvious needs. um agricultural water management, things like irrigation and then water resources management, uh everything to do with monitoring networks, um uh groundwater management, etc., management of floods and and the key cost drivers of what that expenditure uh is for is one is just capex for infrastructure of course. So on the water supply and sanitation side um a lot of that expenditure has been um uh capital expenditure. Under normal conditions the operational expenditure over let's say 20 or 30 year lifespan of a project should be higher than the capex but sometimes it's the other way around and that's where you see things break down. So the opex uh should be higher than the capex on a life cycle basis but sometimes that doesn't happen. And then thirdly, of course, we need the people uh and the institutions that actually do the work. So, so that's on the left side. What do we need the money for uh in terms of financing? Then on the right side is is where does the money come from? And it's really a simple formula that we all know is the so-called three T's, right? Tariffs, taxes, uh transfers. This for me to be honest sometimes comes as a surprise but for some of you it may not which is that by far um household expenditure I've called it tariffs but maybe um it's a lot it's a bit more loaded in that um household expenditure by far outstrips almost uh uh all the expenditures that are used for uh uh for water and sanitation either in the form of themselves say putting up a um say a water supply point that they finance uh or sanitation infrastructure or indeed paying back uh uh through a charge. So that's about 50% uh globally. uh taxes which is just general sort of budget expenditure from the government uh that's 33% ODA very small 3% but quite big sometimes in in some countries right there we've put in borrowing but to be honest that is just um an an instrument it's it's really not a source of finance because if you think about it borrowing is basically moving money between time so that accounts for 14% but what really it is is uh you borrow the money now and it's still the three T's that eventually uh pay for it. So that picture I think is important for the for what we'll go into into next right. So that's the demand what we need the money for that's the supply and between those uh AFDB and others estimate that gap that we just showed. Now if we look at just the borrowing right the money that comes from financiers uh into a country water in particular is quite peculiar compared to say transport uh or energy for example in that there's not much private sector uh uh financing right so you will see there that it's mostly public sector uh but if we were to compare that with uh uh with uh with energy, let's say, or telecoms for obvious reasons, right? They're not public goods, then you have a lot more public uh private sector participation. So, that statement at the bottom there is really to do with the fact that to get financing, especially private finance, what has to be clear is how what is the mechanism that that financing is going to be paid back. It's it's pretty much run on a think of it as a business. You borrow money and then the question is always who who is going to be pay paid back and how is it going to be paid back and that's the the the key challenge there with private finance uh uh for infrastructure. So that's sort of if you like the the broad landscape. Uh our next slide please. Uh this is also uh uh a landscape slide what's going on broadly on private sector participation. If you go onto the um uh World Bank site or you can just type PPI database you'll be able to see this database and it shows all the private sector participation globally in all the sectors for water. you can see that um the private sector participation has been going down. Uh a lot of the PPPs uh are are distressed um and and that's that's driven primarily because the the the what you then charge if you do a project in water uh can't recover even a typically O&M costs. Um, and so, you know, it's it's important to keep this in mind when we when we get start talking about what the solutions to to water management could could be. So, that's that's me trying to rush the the the broad overview and then uh I'll go to the next uh uh stage of the of the discussion. Um, next slide please. So how does this money how does it if we have a budget in a country how does it flow exactly and where the problems are right so this is if you like a generic financial flow diagram for rural wash financing it starts off right at the top there in the national budget of the ministry of finance right uh it can be collected from taxes or it can be borrowed money from uh development banks and Then through national government processes it's split into uh uh the different sectors and ministries and from there if it were rural wash if you have for example in your country a rural wash agency at national level it could go there if not it goes directly typically to to local government in the form of uh uh grants right sometimes there are nonconditional grants uh in some countries uh they will calculate for example based on the number of people in a place. That's an unconditional grant to say this region has so many people. We have a calculation for um uh uh what goes to local government based on population. But a conditional grant would be to say for example this is very specific grant to a district or a province specifically for wash but all of those financial flaws eventually land up at local government. This is a typical typical picture, right? And then the World Bank did a study I think um it's maybe less than a decade old now and I can always send it to say for rural wash which type of service provision uh seems much better in terms of sustainability in terms of operation and maintenance and what was clear was for the local government to itself deliver a service is is um is typically uh are not performing that well, right? Private sector performs um uh better uh a utility for example um if you are from uh Pina. So I'm thinking I'm I'm just using ONA as an example or wherever else you may be that performs the best private sector almost as close government not as good right in actually then using that money at the bottom to deliver a service because that requires in rural areas for example that they have to contract uh smallcale providers who then um say build water points maintain water points uh uh etc. In some cases there's some payment back. In some cases there there isn't. So I just want to go to the right side because this explains partly the 72% of money that's already available. Sorry the 28% that is not used right for me I want to highlight that because if we say current expenditure in Africa is estimated at $19 billion right in the water sector annually and then we say but 28% of that is not executed in any given uh in any given year. So even if we take 10% of that 19 billion that's 1.9 billion right if we make it 20% closer to the 19% that's that's uh uh 3 3 uh 3.8 billion that is a lot of money right before we start talking about borrowing new money and so on of money that is not either not spent and sent back uh or is is spent in in ways that could be that could be improved. the top top problem there at right at the top irregular financial flaws. I'm going to skip it because that's a national government. Um I I don't want to talk much about it because I don't see much of an opportunity to discuss with you. But the second one on the right which is area wide planning, coordination, procurement. This is a typical challenge if you walk into a local government office and try to see why is it that the money that was um budgeted for for wash was not spent in any given year. Right? It's because number one to do wash properly you need plan for an area. Right? You can't do water point by water point. You need a plan for an area and then when you plan for that area you need a procurement plan and then you have a preparation and design of those projects so that when the money flows you can then immediately do the procurement for uh those who do construction those who dom to actually do it. So that lack of planning uh uh uh that lack of uh procurement expertise for example is is one part of the problem. The second part of pro problem is even when there has been procurement done then you have some challenges sometimes especially in remote areas of design and construction uh challenges right that later lead to the infrastructure that um uh doesn't survive that doesn't live as long as the the life cycle of the the the the design is same for 20 years but then the infrastructure breaks down much much earlier and then lastly is either On the operation maintenance side, there hasn't been enough money budgeted for operation maintenance or indeed there are not the skills to do it or indeed some genuine challenges which is for rural water and supply and sanitation. It's it's large areas. Back to the planning again, I hope the point makes sense. If if you haven't planned for that operation maintenance to be done sort of regularly for a large area and it's only reactive, then uh that's when it's it starts to fall apart. So I'm mentioning these things which don't have anything to do with money on the surface because they explain the uh reason why 28% of the financing that's already available uh is not well executed. I say this because I believe this is the first source of financing before we look for new money. Second uh to the next slide please. uh uh which makes the similar point but for a different uh sector. Again this is a simplified uh financial flaw for um for urban sanitation. Right? Same story. We start at the top uh say some money comes from taxes some from MDBs. It goes into a national revenue fund in the government right and then from the government it can go to local government or some specialized agencies. In the case of uh um uh nonsword sanitation in in towns and cities, you can have say a town or a city corporation and I use city corporation here because we were preparing this for uh for Bangladesh. Um then that city just on the left there a local government right then um uh will contract engineering firms say to build a fo slice treatment plant for example but here's where it gets gets interesting with nons sanitation because that is a service chain uh unlike rural wash right it's a service chain that starts off with um an urban household has a toilet um and it's not connected to the SW system. So you need an operator to come and empty safely that um that containment structure uh transport the sludge to a yeah um transport the sludge to a to a safe disposal site for treatment uh uh uh etc. Right? So just to use an example of uh something happening right now in our work in Bangladesh is the team there has worked with the government on something called small PPP guidelines and small PPP guidelines basically is if you were a private operator doing this emptying and disposal now it's possible to have a service level agreement right with a city to be able. If there's a plan to service a much bigger area that makes it possible now for a um this to be operated not as sort of if you like an informal a small business but to think of it as a as a potentially a big business that can then actually be financed because now if you carry a service contract for a larger say service area that is in a sense um if you're walking into a finance year. Uh uh we say on the back of on the back of a of a service level contract say for 5 years or whatever the time frame may be uh uh then you can start to seek uh financing to do this. It's not easy. Of course, let's be honest. Probably what will be needed is that that financier gets a guarantee, right? A guarantee, let's say from government or use donor finance, we use World Bank financing to say we know this type of business is not only useful for the city, but we know that it can be viable. So we will guarantee you um bank X in country Y that um not more than 10% of the loans you give out to these uh uh operators will um uh not more than 10% of the loans will be non-performing, right? That they won't pay back the money. So I I'm now trying to make the link again between the 72% that's unspent because you know there's all of these problems that happen in the system to how potentially um water sanitation businesses could solve the problem. But there's still a missing link right in that story uh which we'll come to later which is that financiers don't yet trust that all of this works. Um they typically will need some kind of um um let's say guarantee or revolving fund or something for them to actually uh test this market that they find to be risky. Uh next slide please. And and by the way before I I I talk about this one um just this morning I was talking to a colleague in Ghana uh where we worked with a local bank in Ghana uh small scale to try out a revolving fund tomemes and to households for a sanitation provision. And the idea was that this bank through this uh revolving fund would learn this business and understand that this market is not as risky as they thought. 97% paid repayment rate very very very very it was a very small revolving fund but I I hope you get the idea that then now the bank learns that this could actually work and then the hope is that uh after the revolving fund elapses they're able to take this uh forward. Now the one for irrigation which I'm getting to now this slide it's a lot more messier I can always fix it uh uh for you it was uh uh because the financial flaws they are split between two the left side in blue is um irrigation schemes so I won't say much about that but the right side is farmer irrigation right and and think of the distinction as um large scale um shared infrastructure uh that would be a scheme um farmer being um either small farmer groups or individuals that are doing irrigation on on their own. Um and the equipment being um um yeah, let's say somebody has an individual um um a pump and a pump for the field or or or shared um infrastructure. And there the first typical challenge we hear we've been working our colleagues in energy and in agri food I mean water have been working on this uh in different parts of east Africa uh for example uh Nepal we did some work um and the first issue we find uh in working with farmers that want to expand production they want to use more irrigation is just getting over that initial capital cost to put in replace the irrigation system, right? And this financing comes from either own savings, it comes from banks, comes from local lenders, it comes from agro dealers who say provide um um uh say fertilizer and um or who buy from the farmers also then can provide some finance and then it also comes from the equipment suppliers who could offer some terms but it's typically just not enough uh um uh or indeed the terms are not favorable for farmers. What we tried there was uh some results based grant. Um so think of it like this. We go to an equipment supplier who supplies solar powered irrigation for example and say you're only supplying people who who you know are close to the capital are um sort of medium income probably could do this on their own. We would like for you to extend your service to resource constraint pharmacy, but we will only pay you a small grant uh as an incentive if you reach them. Right? So after the fact, we think there's a a business for you to to extend to them. Um and and that worked um uh for some of the equipment suppliers who had a system called PGO already in in installed which is basically some of them uh let's say as an example would have um equipment that you can uh uh a payment scheme that you can do via mobile money. Um and then they could spread out the payments say over two seasons. um you could stop some of the equipment, let's say, if if there's no payment, etc. Uh if they already had that in place, it was possible for them to take up um uh to take up uh this uh this grant and extend their services to to to more uh farmers than they would have. So that's one um potential challenge, one potential solution. Um also typically is that then farmers don't get um an irrigation service um or many farmers don't get an irrigation service they just get equipment right you purchase equipment but um when that equipment breaks down it's now um a very very big task to go and find the parts uh after you find the parts to exactly do the the the maintenance Um and in Ethiopia for example, what we one idea we we played around with was to have working with the district to establish some centers where you have some enterprises that are able to uh do this O&M but also do O&M for other things right because or else they won't be viable if they're just focused on on irrigation. So they could also do water points uh uh uh etc. But again, I think all of this, what we just talked about, the capital costs, the on andm, all of this also needs financing, right? So, I'm I'm trying to string a story here between um where we started, right? Uh $19 billion uh uh financing currently that we have in um on the continent for um water supply and sanitation, uh for water resources management, for irrigation. some of it not so well spent. So that is an opportunity in a sense in a very twisted way, right? If you solve that challenge then uh um we're potentially tapping into financing but even to do that uh is not easy needs maybe new financing instruments. So that's the kind of where I'm trying to go here uh as fast as I uh as I can. So now to end uh with two quick slides and then and then happy to hear from you and thank you so much for for for uh sitting through this after I was so late. So um the the the a lot of the money that is transacted is is transacted through most of the financing of that 19 billion is is traditional financing methods, right? Some of it goes through government. Um as I showed you for rural wash. Um some of it is say uh development bank loans that also go through government follow that same rural wash uh pathway. Um a little bit of it is private finance too too too too little if you ask me that should be expanded. Um so that's the traditional side. uh for irrigation in the past a lot of it was uh irrigation schemes now slowly uh the example I gave for example of uh results based financing for entrepreneurs that's starting to come up so what are these new innovations that are starting to come up and which ones maybe could be useful in the future so the very first one I would like to point out is >> sorry Nick I think um uh Hank joined as yeah as he said so uh I'll just ask you just to wrap up a little bit to give him um the floor for closing remarks. >> Sounds good. Okay. Yeah. So the first is that um um if the the traditional most of that financing that's already coming into the system is more results based. World Bank have something called a payment for results. Then it incentivizes performance to reduce that 28% that's not always well spent. The second would be if we want local financing institutions to finance say um an entrepreneur who's solving irrigation problems or an entrepreneur who wants to expand the irrigation production or an entrepreneur who is in the sanitation uh business who wants to do um um um sludge emptying and expand that business then potentially a good use of the current money some of it is to guarantee to domestic institutions to lend to the entrepreneurs water funds that's for water resources management and on&m PPPs uh tricky but we tried something for example in SMV in um in Mali actually uh with what I think were promising results so something maybe to to to to look at which is basically again entrepreneurs uh with a contract uh for a large area not reactive to go and do scheduled maintenance. So I think these potentially these innovations also open up some space uh for um for financing. Um and um yeah the rest of the slides you can uh you can read much later and hello Hank wherever you are. >> Thank you so much Nick. We really appreciate uh your passion as well. And uh before we turn it to Hank he's in the car in Sri Lanka. It's amazing that he can actually join us. Um so we are a bunch of young people and also very um experienced youth champions that heard a lot about financing um as we prepare to head into the UN water conference in 2026. Uh some of us have attended 2023 conference, some of us are looking, some of us don't have funding yet. We just want uh to know what your expectations are on the youth that are re here really keen to learn and um yeah your impressions just in general as a closing remark. >> I'm in I'm in a call. Hello. Yeah, don't worry and the whole team. I'm not sure if you can actually see me. Uh is can you >> Yeah, we can. Yeah, we can. Okay. I don't see an image of myself, so uh it made me >> We hope you're not driving. >> No, no, I'm in the back of a car. >> Okay. uh to together with actually the co-chair um that we co-chared as I explained uh the first ever IPCC uh water climate expert meeting here in Colbo in Sri Lanka that was sponsored and co-hosted by EI the international water management institute and I had the honor to co-chair this together with Cromwell who's with me in the car and we uh just had three amazing days on how to bring a water and climate community together, experts from around the world. They were from science, indigenous peoples, youth and beyond policy makers that came together to explore uh the opportunities towards AR7, the upcoming assessment report of the IPCC, but also to understand how water and climate can strengthen in the policy space the work towards the 2026 UN water conference and the SDG summit next next next year. So after 3 days of hard work, not a lot of sleep, uh but amazing work, uh it's great to tell you that these were amazing days and that your voice was in that room too, although you were not physically there to ensure that we talked a lot about intergenerational and intergenerational justice. The voice of youth was amplified. next and future generations that were are not even born were message and the linkages across cultures and continents was very much part of this conversation. So beyond technicalities this was a a a conversation uh across cultures across disciplines towards the this nexus between water the water cycle and climate change. So, I'm very happy and encouraged with that. I I'm so happy to see you. Uh uh I saw you uh uh last week at IIA uh on on on the screen and um it's it's just empowering to hear every time how Afro's work is moving forward and how you're able to bring uh younger generations with other generations together uh to work hard on water security for all and everyone. Everyone on this call, your voice is of critical importance >> in advanceing the water agenda for the UN water conference that we will always ensure that that voice is not only heard but has a secured space, a defined space to provoke what we're doing today and to inspire what we're doing tomorrow. Thank you so much and um I hope your >> and he was uh muted back. That's amazing. Thank you so much Hank for your contribution. And I think before we actually just close off uh the entire time and thank you Nick for answering the questions that we were having as you were speaking. I just want to um I just want the participants to just reflect on the beginning of this webinar and just think about the word commitment. Um I personally had issues with my laptop and I thought I had different uh ways to you know cope with uncertainty but then I committed to just moderate this webinar from my phone. same as Nick who tried to log in so hard we've exchanged like six or seven emails for him to try to get into the meeting and he was able to finally make his point and exchange with some people in the chat as well and Hank you know joining from the back of a car in Sri Lanka I think this is all common to the commitment we have to push the agenda that we have that we're looking for which is wash financing which is really getting youth and young people to speak up and really get into these spaces. So that's a great takeaway message that I want to uh you to take uh from home and we stay in touch for the development and I see you in Abu Dhabi in December. Thank you everyone for joining and have a great day. >> Hi Hank, how Nick, hi Madu, my friends, all of you. >> Thank you so much everyone. Thank you. And hi. Hi, dear friend. >> Thank you. Good to see you. Thank you. Take care. Good luck. >> Take care. >> Thank you. We want