Governance of community drinking water supply and sanitation utilities

According to its Multiyear Objective-targeted Convention with the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development, IOWater developed two new activities in this sector:

* The African Water Association (AWA) joined IOWater to draw up a proposal aiming at improving the management of the African water utilities with performance indicators: The project "Organization of a sustainable service of performance measurement in eight African water utilities" will concern Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Kenya. It required a strong collaboration with AWA and a preparatory assignment was carried out in March 2007 in Ghana and Ivory Coast, AWA head office. The project should begin in 2008 for a three-year duration, with financing being discussed.

* IOWater is in charge of the secretariat of the "governance" working group within the French Water Partnership (FWP); the group’s assignments were specified and deal with an action plan with six goals:
- Promoting discussions on water and sanitation policies in France and finding synergies between all the water stakeholders;
- Informing the members of the legal texts and standards related to water and sanitation;
- Preparing "governance" and "local community" sheets for the international events where France will be present under the FWP banner;
- Ensuring French presence in international meetings;
- Coordinating thinking with decentralized cooperation;
- Creating training mechanisms for the elected officials of the Southern countries.