Free Flow

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ater

ooperation

, S

ustainability

and

overty

radication

for the needs of developing countries was conducted at

Helsinki University of Technology (1972-74), followed

by six courses in 1979-1992 at Tampere University of

Technology (TUT). Participants in the latter courses

wrote their MSc theses mainly in their home countries.

A special BSc civil engineering programme was also run

for 14 Namibian students at TUT before the country

gained independence.

Current development cooperation supported by the

Finnish Government in the water sector uses various

forms and instruments. In addition to the bilateral activ-

ities described below, Finland supports many activities

in the sector through international agencies, academia

and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Collaboration projects

The Finnish Government started to support bilateral

projects after sending out individual experts in the late

1960s and early 1970s. The first long-term project was

in Southern Tanzania in 1970-1993. Such projects have

also been undertaken in Sri Lanka, Kenya, Viet Nam,

Egypt, Mozambique, Nepal, Namibia, Ethiopia, Sudan

and Southern Sudan.

In the 1980s these projects started to change from

construction orientation (supply-driven) to expert-

based and development activities (demand-driven).

Gradually, sanitation and hygiene education were

included in the projects, and policy coherence between

water, education and health became integral to the

operations. The main focus has been on rural coop-

eration, but since the 1990s urban water supply and

sewerage have also been supported in Viet Nam, Egypt

and Mozambique. Since 2007 urban projects have

focused on small towns in Palestine and Viet Nam.

Ethiopia

After the fall of the communist military regime in

Ethiopia, a Finnish-supported water and environ-

ment project was conducted in the Amhara region

(1994-2011) and replicated in the Benishangul-Gumuz

regions (2008-13). Both aimed to increase capacity

and community ownership of community-based water,

sanitation and hygiene (WASH) structures. These were

mainly shallow wells and spring protections, with

Community-Led Total Sanitation as the main channel

for sanitation support. Thereafter the Community-Led

Accelerated WASH programme institutionalized the

community managed project (CMP) model, which has

become accepted as one of the national financial models

for rural WASH.

CMP has solved the issue of managing local funding

and optimal allocation of roles and responsibilities in

the WASH process. The investment funds needed for

construction are channelled to communities by a local

microfinance institution. The CMP approach is also

used in projects implemented and financed by the

Ethiopian Government as well as the United Nations

Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in some regions. The

approach has proved successful and has gained inter-

Since the mid-1960s, the water sector – particularly water supply

and sanitation – has been one of the major targets of Finnish devel-

opment policy and cooperation. Official development assistance

(ODA) increased in the 1980s and peaked in 1991 at 0.8 per cent of

gross national income. This upward trend was followed by a deep

trough in the early 1990s which cut resources by half and was later

followed by an instrumental shift from project-based aid towards

sector-wide approaches where funds were increasingly channelled

through multilateral trust funds. At this juncture some innovative

and functional ODA instruments also ceased to exist, such as univer-

sity collaboration.

In the early part of the millennium the water sector accounted

for some 2-5 per cent of bilateral cooperation activities, but its

share increased steeply in 2007-2011 as a result of the policy shift.

Currently, water sector ODA is almost EUR 60 million a year or

around 5 per cent of total ODA; in 2012-2016 the water sector will

be the single largest sector of cooperation in the main partner coun-

tries. The focus has also shifted to multiple use of development

cooperation instruments and, geographically, to fragile and post-

conflict countries.

Finnish development cooperation in water services

Official water sector development cooperation supported by the

Finnish Government has progressed gradually based on lessons

learned. In Eastern Africa many new independent governments

had ambitious plans and policies including the free water policy.

Although understandable based on the political passions of the day,

this policy soon proved unrealistic, though it took decades for many

countries to abandon it.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s individual experts were

stationed at the national water authorities of recipient countries in

Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. A postgraduate programme designed

Improved water supply in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia

Image: Harri Mattila