Challenges for development

World Water Day is an occasion to remind us that more than 1.2 billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion lack access to even basic sanitation. This is unacceptable: water is of critical importance for development.

World Water Day, today, marks the start of a new UN international decade for action on water. Fresh water is a finite and precious resource essential for sustaining life and human development. The challenges of water management, fresh water provision, sanitation and health are known in all countries, yet the issues are different:

In the developing world, the lack of sufficient clean water and proper sanitation is one of the leading causes of illness and death. In recognition of the critical importance of water for development, the Millennium Development Goals include a target to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

The EU is not only the world's largest provider of development aid for water and sanitation but also the largest provider of development assistance overall. This puts us in a position of particular responsibility. The reports of the UN on the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals speak a clear language: We must do more and we must do better. By "we", I mean both the developed and the developing world.

The EU has made the Millennium Development Goals their own: The Union and the 25 member states provide collectively around €1.4 billion annually to water and sanitation in developing countries; this is generating significant results on the ground. At the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit for Sustainable Development, the EU launched its water initiative, which is built on partnership. It brings together key actors from the development, environment and research communities, at government, NGO or operator level, both in Europe and in developing countries. The discussion in its stakeholder groups takes water as a cross-cutting issue, it promotes better water governance arrangements, increases stakeholder participation, encourages regional and sub-regional cooperation and catalyses additional funding.

In order to make a decisive step forward in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, in particular in Africa, we must consider new ways in delivering on the ground and be able to unlock more resources. With its water initiative, the EU provides the framework for strategic partnerships on water and sanitation to leverage additional resources from the public and private, local and international. But the EU also goes new ways to deliver its assistance. The €500 million EU-ACP water facility targeted at developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific is a response to the need to catalyse additional funding and to work directly with those concerned with shortages of water and the absence of sanitation.

The ACP-EU water facility is not designed to finance big water infrastructure. It is a fund that will create the conditions to attract funding from sources other than public development assistance (ODA) and it will bring funding directly to the local level. The result of the first call for proposals for the EU-ACP water facility on January 31 talks a clear language: We received more than 800 proposals from various state and non-state actors, NGOs and civil society. This is an impressive commitment for change.

I am convinced that innovative ideas to unlock new sources of funding and to deliver on the ground will make a difference in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. The European Union is committed to act on both ends. The Commission will soon deliver its proposals to make our commitment even more effective. We will table three major initiatives in this context during April: an initiative on coherence between our policies and towards the member states, an initiative on finance and an initiative on the region most lagging behind and an initiative on Africa. I believe that, with these proposals, the European Union will take the political lead in development cooperation.

We work to make this year a difference in development.

Mr Manservisi is director general of the EU's Directorate General for Development.