This session will explore best practices/models for utilities through partnerships, the private sector, and innovative financing through three transformative and scalable examples:
1) How Ghana Water Ltd's (GWL) Social Connection Fund (SCF) serves as an innovative utility-led mechanism advancing equitable water access for underserved urban populations in Ghana.
A concise SCF model will be presented and discussed, offering multi-stakeholder perspectives on utilities addressing systemic inequalities through localized financing. The session highlights practical approaches for pooling funding to subsidize low-income connections and explores sustainable scaling pathways, particularly tariff-based surcharges.
The session part will be demonstrating how cross-sector collaboration and utility reform operationalize water rights without external funding dependence.
2) Next Generation Sanitation (NGS) – is the UN Sanitation & Hygiene Fund’s transformative approach to address the sanitation crisis through non-sewered solutions and the power of markets. NGS combines public sector mandates with the private sector, creating new opportunities for scale and sustainability in sanitation. This part of the session focuses on how public sanitation utilities in low-income urban areas can leverage NGS to scale up service delivery by strengthening utility capacity, engaging local private providers, and mobilising financing. A highlight will be the experience in Kampala, Uganda, where the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has operationalized NGS principles, for example, through results-based financing agreements, and by formalizing faecal sludge management services via Service Level Agreements with private operators.
3) This presentation highlights climate challenges faced by water utilities in Burkina Faso, focusing on mitigation measures that also improve financial performance. It presents ONEA’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower operational costs, and maintain water and sanitation services. Key initiatives include renewable energy use, biogas production, decentralized sanitation, reforestation, and climate partnerships. The presentation explores how these actions enhance sustainability and cost-efficiency, while addressing implementation challenges. It also showcases funding-seeking projects and emphasizes the importance of mitigation alongside adaptation, supported by good governance and innovative, cost-effective practices in the water sector.