In line with its strategy to promote public-private partnerships (PPP) projects at the local level, the PPP Center found a formidable partner in the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank. The aim of the partnership is to provide local governments with the necessary technical assistance and capacity building opportunities that will contribute to the development of local water projects.
The World Bank – Water and Sanitation Program (WB-WSP) is a multi-donor partnership that supports poor people in obtaining affordable, safe, and sustainable access to water and sanitation services. The Philippines is one of the countries that the World Bank identified requiring assistance in enhancing the delivery of equitable water supply and sanitation services. There still exists a conspicuous gap in the water sector in the country. Within the sphere of publicly financed networks, water systems piped into premises are limited in coverage, and service delivery is irregular at best. Local government units (LGUs) and water districts (WDs) struggle to expand their utilities, leaving their constituencies severely underserved.
The WB-WSP has supported the capacity building program of the Center by providing technical assistance, learning opportunities and the strengthening of formal collaborative ties not only for Center staff, but also implementing/ regulatory agencies in the water sector and client-LGUs seeking to upgrade water service delivery in their localities.
All current initiatives were borne out of capacity building activities, technical assistance and dialogues conducted among the PPP Center, the WB-WSP and its development partners. This collaborative ties is further strengthened and sustained in undertaking the following on-going initiatives:
1. PPP Productization work
The PPP toolkit includes a PPP marketing plan for Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) PPP Projects and several templates for project study such as terms of reference for the procurement of transaction advisory and water source assessment, and bid/ tender documents preparation such as Minimum Performance Specifications and Standards (MPSS) for physical works and Term sheet for concession agreement.
The toolkit is integral to the PPP Center’s capacity building efforts for PPPs in the local water and sanitation sector. Through this, LGUs and WDs have the concrete means to readily adopt the PPP option to pursue their water infrastructure projects.
2. Institutionalization of a PPP Technical Working Group (TWG ) for local water and sanitation projects
The PPP Center, together with the Local Water Utilities Administration, National Water Resources Board, Philippine Association of Water Districts, and the Department of Interior and Local Government, is in the process of formalizing a cooperation to mutually support the advocacy, capacity building, technical assistance, and policy development assistance for local water projects undertaken by local government units and water districts.
Formalizing this cooperation will essentially harmonize the existing capacity building and technical assistance efforts these government agencies extend to LGUs for local water projects. With this partnership, the TWG envisions to provide an integrated menu of services that can be accessed by LGUs and WDs.
3. Mainstreaming capacity building assistance to actual local conditions
Coming off from a successful staging of a Business Case Development Workshop conducted last year, the Municipality of Baggao (in Cagayan Province) and the Province of Davao del Sur approached the PPP Center, expressing their interest to pursue their water projects through PPP. In response, the PPP Center provided further capacity building support to these LGUs in the form of technical assistance and knowledge products (such as toolkits).
The PPP Center, together with the World Bank – Water and Sanitation Program, is optimistic that through these interventions, these projects will blossom into full-fledged infrastructure projects capable of adequately delivering the needed water services to their respective localities.
