EU-WOP Phase II launch and dialogue

Water and sanitation utilities working in cities and communities around the world are on the front lines of efforts to ensure that everyone has access to safe and well managed water and sanitation services. However, their capacities – financial, technical, social, managerial - often prevent them from delivering.
Sanitation and Water Operators' Partnerships (WOPs) draw on the motivations and natural capacities of effective water and sanitation service providers to help their peers realize sustainable improvements. Strong utilities have shown themselves to be effective mentors to other utilities striving to improve their financial, technical and managerial performance. WOPs make their impact by helping utilities acquire and apply knowledge, establish new practices and implement improved approaches. The resulting capacity and performance improvements contribute to SDG 6 targets and facilitate utilities’ access to financing for infrastructural investments, supporting further extensions or improvements in services.    
The EU-Water Operators’ Partnerships (WOP) programme is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Global Water Operators’ Partnership Alliance (GWOPA), hosted by UN-HABITAT. The programme promotes and establishes peer support partnerships between water and sanitation utilities worldwide to address sustainability gaps and achieve operational and organizational change across a wide range of utility activities. Launched in September 2020 with a budget of EUR 9 million, the programme is supporting 22 Water Operators Partnerships in Latin American and the Caribbean, MENA, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region to strengthen water and sanitation operators’ capacity, performance, and financial accessibility to improve access to equitable and sustainable WASH services.
A second phase of the programme is being launched at WUF. It aims at reinforcing the link with investments together with a focus on digitalization and the human rights-based approach to water and sanitation services to foster the change towards more efficient, organised, and transparent water operators. The EU will provide EUR 14 million for the second phase of the programme.
The session will present highlights from the ongoing EU WOP programme and introduce its second phase which will invite new project proposals in 2025. The session will engage local political leaders, utility managers and other urban actors in discussion about how to work together and leverage the EU WOP programme to realize SDG 6.