The International High-Level Panel on Water Investments for Africa, at the UN Water Summit today called for Institutional Investor-Public Partnerships (IIPPs) to mobilise an additional US$30 billion/year towards bankable and investable water security and sustainable sanitation investment opportunities across Africa.
IIPPs are innovative infrastructure investment partnerships between a government and an institutional investor or investors, to mobilize private capital at scale and deploy that capital at speed in respect of climate-focused infrastructure investment programmes and projects to deliver a country’s NDC and SDG commitments.
The International High-Level Panel on Water Investments for Africa was formally launched on 25 March 2022, during the 9th World Water Forum in Dakar, by the President of the Republic of Senegal His Excellency Macky Sall, as Chair of the African Union. The mandate of the International High-Level Panel on Water Investments for Africa is to drive global political mobilisation and international engagement; to mobilise an additional US$30 billion/year towards bankable and investable water security and sustainable sanitation investment opportunities across Africa; and to address the twin challenge of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Heads of State Panel leaders include: H.E. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal (Co-Chair), H.E. Hage Geingob, President of the Republic of Namibia (Co-Chair); H.E. Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Co-Chair); H.E. Jakaya Kikwete, former President of United Republic of Tanzania (Alternate Co-Chair); H.E. Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa; H.E. Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania; H.E. William Samoei Arap Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya; H.E. Hakainde Hichilema, President of the Republic of Zambia; H.E. Adama Barrow, President of the Republic of The Gambia; and H.E. Moussa Faki, Chair of the African Union Commission.
The High-Level Panel leaders highlighted that African and global institutional investors hold significant pools of capital seeking competitive risk-adjusted returns from bankable sectors – including aspects of the water value chain, which African governments must engage in order to incentivise the mobilisation of an additional US$30 billion/year towards water security and sustainable sanitation in Africa. Today’s required unprecedented acceleration in both the pace and scale of financing demands changes to the status quo that reflect the current global water and climate emergency.
The Panel urged African governments to unlock and scale an unprecedented pipeline of investable water projects by forging closer institutional investor-public partnerships and greater risk sharing between public and private finance.
The Panel highlighted that pursuing IIPPs is both a continental and global imperative which offers significant investment opportunities for African and global institutional investors with long-term patient capital. The Panel emphasized that Multilateral Development Banks (MDB’s) and concessional finance have a crucial role to play in de-risking these investments to crowd-in global pools of private capital at scale.
The Panel stated that to attract this private institutional investment, legal and regulatory frameworks with appropriate risk-sharing mechanisms among public and private investors must be pursued, and that the frameworks must be supported by the recognition of water and wastewater as investable asset classes.
Dr Hubert Danso, Chairman of the African Union’s Continental Business Network (CBN) and Member of the High-Level Panel’s Advisory Group, welcomed the call for IIPPs, stating that today’s multi-trillion water infrastructure investment gap calls for the biggest institutional investor-public partnerships (IIPPs) of our times between African governments and institutional investors, representing over $200trn of capital globally.
This IIPPs call to action from the High-Level Panel sends a strong message to the domestic and global institutional investment community that governments not only welcome a partnership with our capital, but have a clear and innovative IIPP legal framework which provides equitable risk-sharing mechanisms among public and private investors to de-risk these investments.
Global institutional water investor Matt Diserio, President of New York–based Water Asset Management commented, “Africa’s water investment needs can be solved today, with private capital playing an important role, as it does in many other parts of the world. We welcome the High-Level Panel’s call for more Institutional Investor-Public Partnerships, and the recognition of water as an investable asset class. We concur with the Panel’s statement that to attract global private investment to expand and sustain water infrastructure, legal and regulatory frameworks with appropriate incentives and risk-sharing mechanisms must be implemented. The Africa Water Investment Platform seeks to collaborate in IIPPs and other direct investments to ensure Africa’s water future.”
Download the High-Level International Panel on Water Investments for Africa Call To Action Statement.
For more information on IIPPs visit www.iipphub.com