Global Water Operator’s Partnership Alliance (GWOPA) was established as a key recommendation of the “Hashimoto Action Plan” announced by the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation. This would be a structured program of cooperation among water operators, based on the mutual support and non-profit basis.
GWOPA helps promote WOPs through the following six activity areas:
1. Supporting regional WOP
- GWOPA works closely with existing water and sanitation networks and stakeholders to help establish new regional and national WOP platforms or embed WOPs activities within existing structures.
- They provide seed money and secretariat support for initial activities until, with our help, such platforms can secure longer-term funding and become sustainable.
- They also support WOPs platforms in matchmaking, brokering and facilitating twinning partnerships.
- Albania is part of South Eastern European Group.
2. Knowledge Management
- Knowledge management activities are aimed at developing information, tools, and guidelines to assist those wishing to engage in, or support, WOPs.
- GWOPA works with WOPs implementers and facilitators, such as the regional platforms, to derive lessons and models from their experiences, and document them as case studies, for example, for use by other WOPs practitioners.
3. Benchmarking: the Geo-Referenced Utility Benchmarking System (GRUBS)
- GWOPA supports performance benchmarking to enable utilities to better understand their relative strengths and weaknesses and set a course for improvement.
- GWOPA has developed GRUBS to bring together benchmarking data in a common, public format, with enhanced visual and analytical capabilities. The platform is meant to encourage performance measurement and transparency, stimulate healthy competition and facilitate WOPs by helping operators identify appropriate partners.
4. Capacity Building and Training
- The objective of GWOPA’s capacity building activities is to develop the skills of water operators by helping them share their know-how and anchor it within other utilities.
- GWOPA works closely with capacity building partner organizations to ensure these modes of capacity building and co-learning reinforce one another.
5. Financial Guidance and Linking
- GWOPA plays a global role in attracting funds towards WOPs activities.
- GWOPA has been working with partners to raise funds for WOPs and their follow-up. A key activity in this area is the establishment of the GWOPA Public Utilities Financing and Advisory Facility (PUAFF), which aims at financing the implementation of Performance Improvement Plans resulting from WOPs in preparation for large scale sector investments.
6. Advocacy, Communications, and Alliance Building
- WOPs are rarely the initiative of individuals, but the result of buy-in and active support from different groups of actors – utilities and their entire workforce, governments, and financial institutions.
- GWOPA reaches different audiences to build the support essential for WOPs success through a wide range of communication activities including websites, newsletters, and conference participation.
- Since March 2010, Water Supply and Sewerage Water Association of Albania is a member of GWOPA.