Dutch sector involvement
The sector wide budget support and co-funding through International Agencies were meant to reduce the number of isolated projects. But the opposite happened under the successors of Minister Eveline Herfkens, (deputy) minister Agnes van Ardenne, because of the wish to involve Dutch water sector partners in Mozambique.
At the 2002 Johannesburg Conference on Sustainable Development, the Dutch (Deputy) Minister Agnes van Ardenne had made a plea for Public Private Partnerships. The Dutch water sector was challenged to contribute to the 50 million people target on the 7th Millennium Development Goal (MDG7), which got a wide and positive response. The Dutch water sector (public institutions, water utilities, companies, NGOs, and knowledge institutes) had already created a platform for cooperation in water, called Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP).
Private sector support
Support by the private sector was stimulated through a funding instrument developed by the Dutch minister Bert Koenders, leading to the so-called Millennium Agreements that were signed at the former Isle of Schokland in 2007; an instrument that was evaluated in 2014.
Later, the semi-public Dutch Water Companies were stimulated by a parliamentary amendment that gave them the possibility to spend 1 percent of their annual budget on MDG7 (motie Koppejan 2008/9). A similar amendment was made for the Dutch Regional Water Authorities (motie Wiegman-van Meppelen Scheppink c.s. 2010).
Multitude of projects
Many more funding instruments came available to stimulate the private sector, such as ORET, Partners voor Water, thematic co-funding, and PPP funding. It led to a certain level of opportunism among Dutch companies. On the one hand this led to a sharp increase in budget for water sector projects in Mozambique. On the other hand, the fast-growing number of projects and Dutch project partners overloaded the Netherlands Embassy. Mozambican partners complained that they lost oversight on all different Dutch initiatives and funding opportunities, in which it was difficult to recognise the most relevant ones.
Water resources
Water Resources management was the only sub-sector that stayed integrated in the sector budget support (ASAS). Institutional support to the Regional Water Authorities (ARAs) was continued. From 2006, Dutch support was given to the International Basin initiative for the Incomati and Maputo rivers, called PRIMA (Progressive Realisation of the Incomati Maputo Agreement).
‘Return’ to rural
Originally, the sector wide budget support was also meant to disburse a good amount to the rural WASH programme (PRONAR), but the expenses remained limited with 25%. In the restructuring of ASAS, it was decided to use other channels for the rural WASH funding, which led to the selection of the HAUPA project of CARE in Nampula and Cabo Delgado (2006 – 2011; 8.3 million Euros) and the One Million project of UNICEF in Sofala, Manica and Tete (2006 – 2014; 27 million Euros). Initially, the UNICEF contract was managed from The Hague, because it was part of a regional funding (ESARO Region) and because the Netherlands Embassy refused to take that extra co-ordination load, while not having the workforce and because they felt bypassed in the funding decision.
In 2010, the One Million project was evaluated by IOB and UNICEF (IOB and UNICEF 2011). The project review served as a case study for a wider evaluation on the impacts of the Rural Drinking Water Sector programmes of the Netherlands Government (IOB 2012 report; IOB 2012 insights).
The impact review was generally positive. Among the positive issues are substantial women involvement in committees and the effectiveness of a modified sanitation approach (kind of CLTS). One of the key issues that required more attention was the expected limited sustainability of the rural services, despite of the use of the community based VLOM concept (Village Level Operation and Maintenance Management). In that concept, the communities were mostly left alone in their efforts, which did not work out well.
During the last part of the project, DGIS introduced a pilot methodology to enforce a focus on sustainability. The methodology included annual sustainability audits and the use of a sustainability clause (see IRC 2015). From 2015, the sustainability clause became compulsory in other Dutch funding instruments for the water sector.
Urban ‘focus’ maintained
During the restructuring of Dutch aid to Mozambique by Minster Herfkens, the support to the World Bank water project in which the 5 main cities were brought under private concessions was seen as a flagship. Other water projects could become part of the Water Sector Budget Support programme, but this rarely happened. Although the initial privatisation through concessions became a failure, it brought new dynamics in the sector, which was responded to by the Netherlands Embassy and Dutch sector parties. One of these was Vitens Evides International (VEI), which started with utility support initiatives, the first one being for four towns in the South of Mozambique in 2005. VEI also launched its customer fund, called Water for Life, which focused on infrastructure to increase access to water (and sanitation) for the most vulnerable people, living in Low-Income areas of towns in which VEI was implementing capacity building activities.
The privatisation of water supply in Mozambique is critically followed by a limited number of scholars. The most recent summarising publication is from Chris Büscher (Büscher 2024).
In the period 2000-2011, the Netherlands supported the urban WASH sector in Mozambique with around 90 million Euros, partly through the ORET facility.
References
Büscher Chris (2024). ‘Expanding Water Privatization in Mozambique: Producing Success, Reproducing Neoliberal Water’; in: Development and Change (on behalf of Erasmus/International Institute of Social Studies/ISS; John Wiley and sons; open access
CDP (2007). Evaluation of sector approaches in the water sector. Country report Mozambique. Utrecht: CDP Utrecht and Delft: UNESCO-IHE; Woersem v., B., P.J. Zijlstra P.J. and Juizo D.
IOB (2008a) Het Nederlandse Afrika beleid 1998 – 2006 (Mozambique often mentioned, country description page 170-171); Evaluation Report 308
IOB (2008). Sectorsteun in milieu en water; IOB Evaluation No 317
IOB and UNICEF (2011). More than Water. Impact evaluation of drinking water supply and sanitation interventions in rural Mozambique; Mid-term impact evaluation UNICEF - Government of the Netherlands Partnership for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene 'One Million Initiative', Mozambique. The Hague: Ministry of Foreign Affairs No. 360
IOB (2012 March) From infrastructure to sustainable impact; Policy review of the Dutch contribution to drinking water Evaluation report No 366
IOB (2017). Policy Review of Dutch aid policy for improved water management, 2006-2016; Mozambique country study (Turner S.); Evaluation Report No 418
Version management: main author D. Bouman, September 2024
