KfW Water Symposium 2009

"The central objective of the International Year of Sanitation was to put the global community on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals MDG sanitation target. However, one year later, it is still difficult to keep sanitation high on the agenda, while practical action is required to encourage demand driven and sustainable solutions. With the support of the German Ministry for Development and Cooperation and together with the European Investment Bank EIB and the French Development Agency AFD, KfW organised a two day Symposium to specifically address ways in which financing institutions can better promote the achievement of the MDG sanitation target. More than 70 experts from various backgrounds explored the challenges of sanitation and discussed ways to further develop innovative financing mechanisms for improved hygiene, sanitation and wastewater management in low-income countries. Four thematic areas were tackled by detailed background papers, presentations and high-level open floor discussions. Session 1: Financing Change in Personal Hygiene Behaviour and Demand Creation for Sanitation Motivation This section contains a rapid review of past experiences in developed countries and the evolution of methods used in developing countries to change hygiene and sanitation behaviors, including successes and failures. Relative costs and impacts, the role of institutional arrangements and actors, as well as approaches for linking hygiene behavior change and sanitation demand creation (so called software investments) with hardware investments are examined. Finally, considerations and opportunities for development banks and other financing agencies to become engaged in the scale-up of hygiene behavior change and sanitation demand creation approaches which have demonstrated success are presented. Session 2: Targeting the Poor with Facilities and Improved Services Motivation The interventions that can help poor people to access sanitation goods and services are examined. The focus is on three types of interventions: the use of low-cost technologies, the use of micro-credit and the use of targeted public finance (or subsidies) to reduce the funding gap that poor people face to meet the capital and recurrent costs of sustainable sanitation. Targeted public finance, performance assessment, effectiveness, sustainability, public funding strategies and performance are analysed. Session 3: Urban Spaces - How to Provide and Finance Service to Peri-urban Areas New approaches to meet sanitation challenges arising from absolute population growth and rapid urbanization are examined from a technical point of view. Simplified solutions and semi-centralised supply and treatment systems are examined in detail and with the help of examples. Session 4: The Potential Role of Utilities in Sanitation Provision for Peri-urban Areas and Poor Target Groups The question why sanitation service provision by local government authorities is poor is addressed. Examples of how water supply and sanitation utilities are being encouraged to support peri-urban areas and poor target groups with the provision of sanitation services are provided. The difficulties of utilities to provide piped water and sewers in a commercially viable manner is addressed. The role of local government authorities, of the regulatory framework, of education and public awareness is highlighted. A theme that appeared in all four sessions concerned the process of project design by development banks. Recommendations to improve it in order to best tackle sanitation issues were as follows: 1. address the entire sanitation chain 2. plan for all urban areas including informal housing areas and slums 3. ensure the sustainable operation of all sections of the sanitation chain (long-term effectiveness). For the full proceedings and the main findings and recommendations, please visit www.iwaponline.com to download free of charge.

KfW Water Symposium 2009

"The central objective of the International Year of Sanitation was to put the global community on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals MDG sanitation target. However, one year later, it is still difficult to keep sanitation high on the agenda, while practical action is required to encourage demand driven and sustainable solutions. With the support of the German Ministry for Development and Cooperation and together with the European Investment Bank EIB and the French Development Agency AFD, KfW organised a two day Symposium to specifically address ways in which financing institutions can better promote the achievement of the MDG sanitation target. More than 70 experts from various backgrounds explored the challenges of sanitation and discussed ways to further develop innovative financing mechanisms for improved hygiene, sanitation and wastewater management in low-income countries. Four thematic areas were tackled by detailed background papers, presentations and high-level open floor discussions. Session 1: Financing Change in Personal Hygiene Behaviour and Demand Creation for Sanitation Motivation This section contains a rapid review of past experiences in developed countries and the evolution of methods used in developing countries to change hygiene and sanitation behaviors, including successes and failures. Relative costs and impacts, the role of institutional arrangements and actors, as well as approaches for linking hygiene behavior change and sanitation demand creation (so called software investments) with hardware investments are examined. Finally, considerations and opportunities for development banks and other financing agencies to become engaged in the scale-up of hygiene behavior change and sanitation demand creation approaches which have demonstrated success are presented. Session 2: Targeting the Poor with Facilities and Improved Services Motivation The interventions that can help poor people to access sanitation goods and services are examined. The focus is on three types of interventions: the use of low-cost technologies, the use of micro-credit and the use of targeted public finance (or subsidies) to reduce the funding gap that poor people face to meet the capital and recurrent costs of sustainable sanitation. Targeted public finance, performance assessment, effectiveness, sustainability, public funding strategies and performance are analysed. Session 3: Urban Spaces - How to Provide and Finance Service to Peri-urban Areas New approaches to meet sanitation challenges arising from absolute population growth and rapid urbanization are examined from a technical point of view. Simplified solutions and semi-centralised supply and treatment systems are examined in detail and with the help of examples. Session 4: The Potential Role of Utilities in Sanitation Provision for Peri-urban Areas and Poor Target Groups The question why sanitation service provision by local government authorities is poor is addressed. Examples of how water supply and sanitation utilities are being encouraged to support peri-urban areas and poor target groups with the provision of sanitation services are provided. The difficulties of utilities to provide piped water and sewers in a commercially viable manner is addressed. The role of local government authorities, of the regulatory framework, of education and public awareness is highlighted. A theme that appeared in all four sessions concerned the process of project design by development banks. Recommendations to improve it in order to best tackle sanitation issues were as follows: 1. address the entire sanitation chain 2. plan for all urban areas including informal housing areas and slums 3. ensure the sustainable operation of all sections of the sanitation chain (long-term effectiveness). For the full proceedings and the main findings and recommendations, please visit www.iwaponline.com to download free of charge.

Kavango Zambezi transfrontier conservation area : master integrated development plan 2015 - 2020

This is the Master Integrated Development Plan for the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA). The Plan highlights the global relevance of transfrontier conservation areas in their ability to promote and maintain large-scale ecological processes

A tale of two cities: restoring water services in Kabul and Monrovia

Kabul and Monrovia, the respective capitals of Afghanistan and Liberia, have recently emerged from long-lasting armed conflicts. In both cities, a large number of organisations took part in emergency water supply provision and later in the rehabilitation of water systems. Based on field research, this paper establishes a parallel between the operations carried out in the two settings, highlighting similarities and analysing the two most common strategies. The first strategy involves international financial institutions, which fund large-scale projects focusing on infrastructural rehabilitation and on the institutional development of the water utility, sometimes envisaging private-sector participation. The second strategy involves humanitarian agencies, which run community-based projects, in most cases independently of the water utilities, and targeting low-income areas. Neither of these approaches manages to combine sustainability and universal service. The paper assesses their respective strengths and weaknesses and suggests ways of improving the quality of assistance provided

Formación continua de docentes en servicio

Sistematiza experiencias de capacitación peruanas y latinoamericanas con el fin de enriquecer la propuesta del Sistema de Formación Continua del MED para docentes en servicio

Financing renewable energy: Who is financing what and why it matters

Successful financing of innovation in renewable energy (RE) requires a better understanding of the relationship between different types of finance and their willingness to invest in RE. We study the ‘direction’ of innovation that financial actors create. Focusing on the deployment phase of innovation, we use Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) data to construct a global dataset of RE asset finance flows from 2004 to 2014. We analyze the asset portfolios of different RE technologies financed by different financial actors according to their size, skew and level of risk. We use entropy-based indices to measure skew, and construct a heuristic index of risk that varies with the technology, time, and country of investment to measure risk. We start by comparing the behavior of private and public types of finance and then disaggregate further along 11 different financial actors (e.g. private banks, public banks, and utilities) and 11 types of RE technologies that are invested in (e.g. different kinds of power generation from solar radiation, wind or biomass). Financial actors vary considerably in the composition of their investment portfolio, creating directions towards particular technologies. Public financial actors invest in portfolios with higher risk technologies, also creating a direction; they also increased their share in total investment dramatically over time. We use these preliminary results to formulate new research questions about how finance affects the directionality of innovation, and the implications for RE policies

Public financing of innovation: new questions

Economic theory justifies policy when there are concrete market failures. The article shows how in the case of innovation, successful policies that have led to radical innovations have been more about market shaping and creating through direct and pervasive public financing, rather than market fixing. The paper reviews and discusses evidence for this in three key areas: (i) the presence of finance from public sources across the entire innovation chain; (ii) the concept of ‘mission-oriented’ policies that have created new technological and industrial landscapes; and (iii) the entrepreneurial and lead investor role of public actors, willing and able to take on extreme risks, independent of the business cycle. We further illustrate these three characteristics for the case of clean technology, and discuss how a market-creating and -shaping perspective may be useful for understanding the financing of transformative innovation needed for confronting contemporary societal challenges

An Alternate Method of Classifying Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis Based on High-Attenuation Mucus

Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is classified radiologically based on the findings of central bronchiectasis (CB) and other radiologic features (ORF). However, the long-term clinical significance of these classifications remains unknown. We hypothesized that the immunological activity and outcomes of ABPA could be predicted on HRCT chest finding of high-attenuation mucus (HAM), a marker of inflammatory activity. In this study, we evaluate the severity and clinical outcomes of ABPA with different radiological classifications. specific IgE levels, eosinophil count) severity of the disease and clinical outcomes in various classifications were analyzed.Of the 234 (123 males, 111 females; mean age, 34.1 years) patients, 55 (23.5%) had normal HRCT, 179 (76.5%) had CB, 49 (20.9%) had HAM, and 27 (11.5%) had ORF. All immunological markers were consistently higher in the HAM classification, while in other classifications these findings were inconsistent. On multivariate analysis, the factors predicting frequent relapses were presence of HAM (OR 7.38; 95% CI, 3.21–17.0) and CB (OR 3.93; 95% CI, 1.63–9.48) after adjusting for ORF.The classification scheme based on HAM most consistently predicts immunological severity in ABPA. Central bronchiectasis and HAM are independent predictors of recurrent relapses in ABPA. Hence, HAM should be employed in the radiological classification of ABPA