Water Integrity Global Outlook 3 – Global Launch
Access to water and sanitation are human rights. Yet millions worldwide still lack adequate access. The newly launched Water Integrity Global Outlook: Improving integrity in Water and Sanitation Finance (WIGO: Finance) takes a hard look at the money flows behind water and sanitation programmes. It highlights the integrity issues threatening our basic rights and proposes pathways for action to increase effectiveness of water and sanitation investments.
At our launch event on September 11, 2024, partners highlighted the critical link between integrity, governance, and successful service delivery. The discussions were powerful and offered a clear call to action.
Thank you to our keynote speaker Sanjay Pradhan, CEO of the Open Government Partnership, and to our esteemed panellists: Saroj Kumar Jha, Global Director of the Water Global Practice, World Bank; Catarina Fonseca, Associate of IRC; Willis Ombai, CEO of the Water Sector Trust Fund; and David Boys, Deputy General Secretary of Public Services International.
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Full Recording:
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The Case for Integrity in Water and Sanitation Financing
Letitia Obeng, Chair of the WIN Supervisory Board, kicked off the event by stressing that integrity failures drain funds that could otherwise be used to deliver sustainable services. Without integrity, transparency and accountability, the sector cannot close the funding gap or deliver on promises to provide clean water and sanitation to all.
Keynote speaker, Sanjay Pradhan, CEO of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), drew on real-world examples, such as Uganda’s early efforts to combat leakages in education financing, to show the impact of corruption on essential services and the power of open government approaches. Pradhan made a compelling case for focusing on financing outcomes. He highlighted transparency, civic engagement, and accountability, as the keys to tackling corruption in water and sanitation financing.
“As we all care about water and sanitation outcomes, we cannot escape the imperative of focusing on corruption and leakages. And for this, open government approaches can help. […] And these open government approaches can consist of two elements. First, transparency and disclosure by the government of the financing, and second, an engaged citizenry that follows the money, demands accountability and provides feedback which government reformers respond to.”
– Sanjay Pradhan, CEO of OGP
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Key Takeaways
Understanding the Scale of the Problem
WIGO: Finance points to the staggering statistic that up to 26% of water investments are lost due to corruption, noting such figures can only be a limited estimate. The human, social, and environmental costs are significantly higher, as are the costs to government and service provider credibility.
The report underscores the need to tackle integrity at all stages, from upstream planning to downstream service delivery.
Three Pillars for Reform: Public Finance, Stakeholder Engagement, and Integrity Culture
Barbara Schreiner, WIN's Executive Director, presented the report and emphasised its practical approach. She outlined three key areas of work to prioritise:
Improving public financial management: Transparent financial reporting, such as making financial data from utilities publicly available in digital formats, is vital. Whistleblower protection was also highlighted as a critical tool in uncovering corruption, with Schreiner urging all stakeholders to establish policies that enable safe reporting of malpractice.
Enabling stakeholder engagement: Governments, water and sanitation institutions, and service providers must defend civic space and involve civil society and communities in monitoring projects and expenditures.
Building a culture of integrity: Ethical leadership, rewards for honest behaviour, and clear accountability mechanisms can prevent corruption from festering.
No Reason, No Room, No Reprieve: A Needed Holistic Approach Against Corruption
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to integrity issues. An effective approach must combine efforts to:
enforce sanctions and stop impunity (no reprieve),
strengthen systems and close loopholes (no room), and
build a culture of integrity, taking into account the social norms used to rationalise corruption (no reason).
Collaboration for Integrity
All participants spoke of the need for water and sanitation stakeholders to work together, with financing institutions, and particularly with local and civil society organisations. Schreiner and Pradhan specifically urged all to build bridges with anti-corruption and integrity organisations.
“The water and sanitation community and the open government community must forge stronger partnerships where they have been typically operating in parallel silos.”
– Sanjay Pradhan, CEO of OGP
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Expert Insights and Proposals on Tackling Integrity Issues
Saroj Kumar Jha – Global Director of the Water Global Practice, World Bank
Saroj Kumar Jha emphasised the importance of transparency and made three proposals for promoting integrity in the work of the Bank:
First, on transparency, he insisted that recipients of World Bank funding should prepare and disclose audited financial statements.
Second, he proposed not just making such transparency a condition, but helping utilities and governments to be able to prepare such statements.
Finally, he proposed moving away from a culture of financing goods and services to financing outcomes. This implies increasingly adopting Performance-Based Financing where funds are disbursed only when tangible outcomes, such as new water connections for communities, are delivered.
On this point, he clarified that governments are expected to show commitment to funded programmes and advance the necessary resources. They can nevertheless receive advance resources from the World Bank of up to 25% of the total when necessary.
Catarina Fonseca – Associate at IRC, Director of Pulsing Tides
Catarina Fonseca offered insights on three red flags she sees in her work tracking sector data and developing financing strategies for water and sanitation:
Lack of transparency around budgets, loans, and expenditure, especially in the urban sanitation sub-sector.
Use of very specific local taxes meant for the water and sanitation sectors in other sectors .
Persistent infrastructure failure despite massive increases in budgets.
She further discussed the need for more transparency on the cost of capital, urging donors and finance institutions to report on their loan conditions and technical assistance requirements, to ensure they do not add to the financial burdens of already debt-strapped countries.
Fonseca concluded that investing in civil society’s ability to track and hold governments accountable throughout the budgeting cycle is one of the most cost-effective ways to combat corruption and ensure that funds are spent where they are needed most.
Willis Ombai – CEO of the Water Sector Trust Fund
Willis Ombai discussed the practical steps taken by Kenya’s Water Sector Trust Fund to address governance issues. He pointed to several issues of concern that affect governance in particular: limited capacity of implementing partners, procurement risks, inflation and macro-economic trends, abrupt changes in cooperation strategies of development partners, and security risks.
The Trust Fund has adopted several tools, including a Governance Assessment Tool and an Integrity Assessment Toolbox, to improve accountability during project planning and execution. Ombai stressed that monitoring is crucial, with projects being assessed at every milestone, also with input from local organisations.
This ensures that resources are used efficiently and in accordance with their intended purposes, reducing the risk of corruption and financial mismanagement. Ombai’s colleagues at the event highlighted tight cooperation with civil society as key to this process.
David Boys – Deputy General Secretary of Public Services International
David Boys brought attention to the plight of workers in the integrity conversation, highlighting difficult working conditions for many. He emphasised the importance of worker rights, safe working conditions, and fair wages, which are essential not only for integrity but also for the sustainability of water services. He also urged stakeholders to meet ODA and climate finance promises.
He was critical of privatisation, highlighting as problematic a focus on financial returns for shareholders, financial secrecy, and inflated salaries of high-level managers at the expense of workers.
In this context, he advocated three measures: whistle-blower protection for workers; support for Public-to-Public Partnerships - where stronger public utilities assist weaker ones; and public management, allowing the creation of democratic oversight of utilities.
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Final Thoughts: Integrity and Value for Money
In response to questions on the cost of integrity and social accountability initiatives, Schreiner countered that relative to the cost of providing services, investment in integrity and social accountability is not expensive at all. Improving governance and integrity should be an integral part of all service delivery. She illustrated this point with a quote from the WIGO3 foreword by Sareen Malik, Executive Secretary of the African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation (ANEW):
“Shying away from integrity or failing to name it explicitly does not help our cause. Integrity and its principles and pathways for systemic change are not optional extras, but foundational elements that ensure the effective and equitable use of resources, ultimately leading to more successful and impactful products and projects.”
– Sareen Malik, Executive Secretary of ANEW (in foreword to WIGO report on Finance)
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Call to Action
WIGO: Finance isn't just a report—it’s a roadmap for change. But these efforts can only bear fruit if the broader water and sanitation community takes action. Every actor, from governments to civil society, donors, and utilities, has a role in strengthening integrity and ensuring funds are used effectively to improve access to water.
Watch the full video of the event to get inspired by global examples of integrity in action.
Read the WIGO: Finance report for practical tools and recommendations that you can implement to strengthen integrity in your work.
Join the conversation by sharing your thoughts here or on social media. Contribute to the global movement to ensure everyone has access to clean water and sanitation.
Together, we can make a difference.
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