The Roundtable on Financing Water

‌The Roundtable on Financing Water is a global public-private platform established by the OECD, the Netherlands, the World Water Council and the World Bank. It draws upon political leadership and technical expertise, with the ambition of facilitating increased financing of investments that contribute to water security and sustainable growth. 

The Roundtable engages a diversity of actors – governments and regulators in developed, emerging and developing economies, private financiers (e.g. institutional investors, commercial banks, asset managers, impact investors), development financing institutions, bi-lateral donors, international organisations, academia and civil society organisations – focused on finding novel ideas and solutions.

• Read more about the OECD programme of work on financing water.

Brochure: Financing a Water Secure Future (PDF)

Report: Financing a Water Secure Future

This report presents a summary of the key challenges and opportunities related to financing that contributes to water security and sustainable growth distilling insights from the Roundtable on Financing Water and related analyses. It covers a broad range of water-related investments, including water and sanitation services, water resources management, agricultural water and managing water-related risks (“too much”, “too little” and “too polluted”). It summarises findings from analysis of investments needs and financing capacities, trends in development finance for water and explores how water risks generate financial impacts for corporates. The report highlights options to address the financing challenge by strengthening the enabling environment for investment, making the best use of existing sources of finance, strategic investment planning and mobilising additional finance via a range of financing approaches. Finally, the report sets out a vision for future OECD work on financing water and for the Roundtable on Financing Water.

 Working paper: The role of intermediaries to facilitate water-related investment

This paper identifies and analyses a sample of 52 diverse intermediaries active in deploying one or more key functions across the investment value chain for 3 specific sub-sectors: utilities, small scale water and sanitation service providers and nature-based solutions. The analysis assesses the extent to which the activities of these intermediaries is aligned with the critical functions needed to mobilise finance across the sub-sectors. It identifies gaps, reduncies and misalignments and calls for a shift from the current opportunistic approach to a more strategic approach in the design and activities of intermediaries, supported by governments and financial institutions.

Background paper: Strategic Investment Pathways: The Zambezi Basin case study

This case study provides a diagnosis of key barriers and opportunities to strengthen the enabling environment for investments that contribute to water security and sustainable growth in the Zambezi Basin. The paper makes the case that a pipeline of bankable projects should be situated within a strategic investment pathway, which takes a long-term approach in order to ensure that investments deliver benefits for the environment, the economy and society over the long-term.

Report: Financing Water Supply, Sanitation and Flood Protection- Challenges in EU Member States and Policy Options

The OECD and the Directorate-General for Environment, the European Commission department responsible for EU policy on the environment, joined forces to examine current and future water-related financing challenges faced by EU member states. These include investments needed to comply with EU regulation for water supply, wastewater collection and treatment, and flood protection. Lessons from Europe outlined in this report can inspire similar research and policy discussions in other parts of the world.