9AWW: The Regional AUSII launch

In response to the urban sanitation crisis in Africa, particularly in contrast to the contemporary sanitation solution, in 2018, the Bank conceived of creating a dedicated urban sanitation investment window in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Preparation included implementing seven pilot projects in seven countries. In 2024, the Bank approved the African Urban Sanitation Investment Initiative (AUSII) as a sanitation-focused window of the African Water Facility. This window comes in as an accelerator and innovator with grants to develop bankable projects for downstream investments and tailored financing with concessional and blended finance and guarantees. Over the next ten years, AUSII aims to connect at least 15 million people to safely managed sanitation services via USD 7 billion downstream investments generated from an initial USD 320 million capitalization. The session is focused to present the AUSII window, its concept, implementation plan, and targeted results and impact. A panel will be organized to discuss the effective implementation of the AUSII interventions and possible measures to tackle implementation challenges and risks. The floor will be open further to the sanitation stakeholders for discussions and providing feedback.