This outcome note captures the highlights of the 2026 GWOPA Assembly, held on 17 May 2026 in Baku, Azerbaijan, as part of the 13th World Urban Forum, the first time the Assembly featured within the official WUF programme. Convening members and partners at a pivotal moment for the Alliance, the Assembly took stock of 17 years of work to strengthen utility capacities, reflected on the achievements of the 2019-2025 Strategy, and shaped strategic orientations for 2026-2029 in alignment with the UN-Habitat Strategic Plan.
The GWOPA Annual Report 2025 presents the Alliance’s work to strengthen water and sanitation operators through solidarity-based, peer-to-peer cooperation. The report highlights how Water Operators’ Partnerships are helping utilities address operational challenges, improve service delivery and contribute to more inclusive, resilient and sustainable cities.
In the industrial city of Gabès in Tunisia, where water losses and pressure on the network affect service delivery, a four-year Water Operators’ Partnership between Tunisia’s National Water Distribution Utility (Société nationale d’exploitation et de distribution des eaux, SONEDE) and Italy’s MM S.p.A. has come to a close. The partnership, managed through the Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance, hosted by UN-Habitat, and funded by the European Union, supported work on leak detection, digitalization, urban drainage and participatory governance.
Global Outlook on Water and Sanitation Service Providers: Water for Sustainable Cities is the first global assessment to put water and sanitation utilities at the heart of sustainable urban development. Produced by GWOPA/UN-Habitat in partnership with IRC, the report shows how strong, well-governed and well-resourced utilities are essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and ensuring resilient, inclusive cities.
UN-Habitat’s 2024 Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance Annual Report highlights global efforts to strengthen public water and sanitation utilities through solidarity-based peer support. The report showcases how Water Operators’ Partnerships (WOPs) are helping utilities deliver better, more inclusive services – advancing sustainable urbanization and the human right to water and sanitation.
Access to clean water and sanitation is a fundamental right, yet women’s role in managing these services is often overlooked. In Mardan, Pakistan, women are becoming active change agents, moving from traditional roles in the water and sanitation sector and influencing decisions through engagement, capacity building, and entrepreneurship.
In line with UN-Habitat's mission, GWOPA prioritizes gender mainstreaming and inclusive urban basic services within water utilities and WOPs. By collaborating with members and partners, we actively advocate for these strategies, aiming to inspire collective change towards a gender-equal world. GWOPA has undertaken initiatives in the following areas to promote gender equality with utilities and sanitation providers through implementing WOPs.
“Low-income Services Unit is not a very exciting operational focus area for most utilities because they have to put in more to deliver services. Yet what is got from there to sustain services is minimal. With support from the EU-WOP programme, […renewed focus on and services delivery in low-income communities] has been enhanced through capacity enhancement and structuring of the initiatives," Zainab Mpakiraba (Manager External Services at National Water & Sewerage Corporation, National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC-Uganda))
“Women are entrepreneurs, yet have limited access to capital and markets,” exemplified Kamala Harris while delivering a speech in Ghana.
Procurement in the water sector is the delivery mechanism for Safe Water for All
African women are the future and the present of Africa. Advancing the economic empowerment of their businesses in the water sector is both smart economics and a lever to achieving gender equality.