WBI has been active in the water/sanitation sector in South East Asia for some years and has been supported SEAWUN since early 2005 with the first activity of a regional No revenue water reduction. This Support Strategy was the result of the fruitful partnership between WBI and SEAWUN and is aimed at strengthening SEAWUN’s role as an effective umbrella organization building capacity in the sector community in the Region within the context of WBI’s overall assistance strategy for the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector.
WBI support to SEAWUN in the form of helping in the organization and delivery of capacity building events is expected to have several positive mutually supportive outcomes:
- strengthen the capacity of the national sector communities in the Region to rise to the challenge of improving utility performance and service delivery
- bring together sector professionals from the member countries, thereby creating a regional community of practice;
- by organizing learning activities through SEAWUN, develop and increase the prestige and capacity of SEAWUN as a regional leader in sector affairs
The themes to be covered by WBI’s capacity building efforts in the Region and the thrust of WBI for SEAWUN may be divided into two categories:
- Leadership events for decision makers in the sector concentrating on sector governance and policy, addressing the key topics in accordance with client demands:
o sector governance, institutional structures
o leadership
o aggregation/clustering of small utilities
o government-utility relationship
o utility autonomy, corporatization
o transparency and accountability
o sector/utility finance
o customer relations and attention
o private public partnerships
- Events on technical subjects, such as:
o Non revenue water reduction
o Asset Management
o business planning, risk management
o private sector participation
WBI will use the following instruments:
- Leadership Fora which bring together decision makers from the sector community (utility mangers, ministry representatives, local government, NGOs) to concentrate on priority issues related to sector governance and policy
- traditional detailed courses/workshops lasting three to four days on specific topics; fully prepared courses are available for NRW and asset management
- shorter seminars on specific topics
- presentations on specific topics at SEAWUN events
- specific expert advise to SEAWUN provided by WBI experts