Global partnerships between municipal utilities improve public infrastructure

Context

In many German partner countries, municipal utilities providing public goods and services such as water and waste disposal are in poor economic shape. As a result, their service provision is only unreliable or does not reach the entire population.

Due to the war, utilities in Ukraine are finding it particularly difficult to maintain operations, restore destroyed technology and bring new plants up to European Union standards. In the face of climate change, growing cities and digitalisation, utility companies in Germany and its partner countries are facing similar challenges in order to continue providing their services.

Objective

Municipal utilities in cooperating countries have better access to up-to-date, tried-and-tested knowledge and the technical and institutional expertise of German municipal utilities.

Approach

The utility platform promotes and supports 27 partnerships between German municipal utilities and operators in Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa, Jordan, Moldova, Ukraine and Albania in the water and waste sector. The platform promotes close exchange on corporate management and on operating and maintaining plants. Technical advice, mutual visits, job shadowings, virtual meetings and the procurement of technology, particularly for Ukraine, form the core of the cooperation between the companies.

The project has also established a logistics hub that dispatches donations and procurements from German utility companies to their Ukrainian counterparts. Appeals for donations by the Association of Local Utilities (VKU) make it possible to deliver needed technical equipment to Ukraine. In addition to the donations, the logistics partner Go Local also transports the goods that are procured for Ukrainian utilities as part of the 16 solidarity operator partnerships.

The utility platform is a cooperation project between GIZ and Engagement Global with its Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW). The utility platform is being developed and implemented in cooperation with the German Association of Local Utilities (VKU) and the German Water Partnership (GWP).

Last update: January 2024