Technical assistance to the Water Resources Development Fund for the “Urban Water Supply Program”

Programme: Cotonou Partnership Agreement

Contract number: TA2015039 ET IF3

Description: The Water Resources Development Fund (WRDF) was established by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) in January 2002, as a semi-autonomous body on behalf of the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy (MoWIE). WRDF’s main objective is to promote the development of viable water and sanitation services in Ethiopia. It provides loans to town utilities (Town Water Utilities-TWUs) to undertake projects and it is expected to be managed through a revolving fund mechanism and on a full cost recovery principle. It provides loans to town utilities (Town Water Utilities-TWUs) to undertake projects and it is expected to be managed through a revolving fund mechanism and on a full cost recovery principle. Since its establishment,
WRDF has received more than 144 applications for loans and has only extended loans to 36 TWUs for a total amount of worth USD180 million.
In the short and medium term, the WRDF will be facing three key trends which will require WRDF to scale up operations. These trends are:
• A significant increase in the volume of lending activities;
• Basket fund implementation and provision of additional funds by other DPs (other than AFD, EIB and IDC);
• Increase in the number of towns seeking funding from WRDF as the Government of Ethiopia seeks to implement the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP).
The GoE will secure financial assistance from Agence Française de Développement (AFD), European Investment Bank (EIB) and Italian Development Cooperation (IDC) for supporting investment for the WRDF.
The purpose of this technical assistance assignment is to give support to the WRDF in its core activities by providing expert advice and capacity building in its core functions of appraisal, monitoring, fund management, procurement supervisory and reporting

Duration: 60 months