UAE and Senegal Co-Host Summit to Catalyse Water Investments in Africa

In a major step toward addressing the world’s most pressing resource challenge, the United Arab Emirates and the Republic of Senegal have reinforced their partnership at the Africa Water Investment Summit. The two nations, in their capacity as co-hosts of the upcoming 2026 UN Water Conference, convened a high-level session to tackle a formidable global water infrastructure investment gap. This collaborative effort, titled “Financing Africa’s Water Future: Catalysing Investment and Partnerships on the Road to the 2026 UN Water Conference,” has set the stage for a new era of proactive water diplomacy and financial innovation.

Held from August 13th to 15th in Cape Town, the summit brought together a powerful coalition of leaders, including Heads of State, ministers, development finance institutions, private investors, and civil society representatives. The central focus was a staggering challenge: a projected US $6.7 trillion global investment gap for climate-resilient water infrastructure by 2030, widening to US $22.6 trillion by 2050. Against this backdrop, Africa mobilizes only a fraction of its needs, generating an estimated US $30 billion for its water infrastructure. The summit sought to transform this gap from a crisis into an opportunity, showcasing innovative financing models and public–private–philanthropic partnerships designed to bridge the divide.

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The Looming Water Crisis: A Threat to Global Prosperity

To understand the urgency of this partnership, one must first grasp the scale of the global water crisis. It is a challenge that affects every continent, with profound implications for human health, economic stability, and environmental sustainability. According to a recent UN report, despite significant progress, over 2.2 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water services, while an even larger 3.4 billion people do not have access to safely managed sanitation. These statistics represent not just a public health issue but also a significant brake on global development. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that every US$1 invested in water and sanitation infrastructure yields a return of at least US$4 in economic benefits through improved health, increased productivity, and reduced healthcare costs.

The crisis is compounded by the escalating effects of climate change. With rising temperatures, more frequent and intense droughts and floods, and shifting rainfall patterns, the availability of clean water is becoming increasingly unpredictable. The UN projects that at the current pace, the world will not achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6)—which aims to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all—until well after 2030, with some estimates pushing the timeline back to 2049. The summit in Cape Town, therefore, was not merely a meeting but a critical intervention designed to accelerate progress on this vital issue.

Africa’s Unique Challenge and the Africa Water Investment Programme

While the water crisis is global, its effects are felt most acutely across Africa. The continent is grappling with rapid urbanization, population growth, and the dual pressures of climate change and a persistent underinvestment in its water and sanitation infrastructure. AUDA-NEPAD’s CEO, Nardos Bekele-Thomas, aptly framed the problem in her address at the summit, declaring that “affordable and reliable water access is the foundation upon which Africa’s prosperity will be built.” She challenged the traditional view of water as a social good, advocating instead for it to be treated as a form of “critical economic infrastructure” that underpins industrial development, health, and stability.

The summit was a key milestone for the Continental Africa Water Investment Programme (AIP), a flagship initiative endorsed by the African Union Assembly. The AIP’s ambitious goal is to mobilize at least US $30 billion annually and create over 5 million jobs by 2030. To achieve this, it has developed three actionable pathways and a five-point action plan, unveiled at both the UN 2023 Water Conference and COP28. The program seeks to bridge the gap between available capital and viable projects. For instance, AUDA-NEPAD has already identified a pipeline of 80 water and sanitation projects across 38 countries, valued at US $32 billion. This highlights that the challenge is not merely a lack of money, but a lack of bankable projects that can attract private investment.

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A Unified Front: The UAE-Senegal Alliance

The selection of the United Arab Emirates and Senegal as co-hosts of the 2026 UN Water Conference is both symbolic and strategic. The partnership brings together a developed nation with significant expertise in water technology and a prominent African nation with firsthand experience of the continent’s water challenges. This blend of resources and perspective is seen as essential for developing effective, context-specific solutions.

The UAE’s commitment to water security is not a recent phenomenon. It is rooted in the vision of its Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who made access to clean water a cornerstone of his philanthropic work. This legacy continues today, with the UAE pursuing ambitious domestic policies and international initiatives. Its Water Security Strategy 2036 aims to reduce total water demand by 21%, increase the reuse of treated water to 95%, and boost the national water storage capacity. These domestic efforts provide a powerful knowledge base and technological expertise—particularly in areas like desalination and water recycling—that the UAE can share with its partners. His Excellency Sheikh Shakhboot bin Nahyan Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of State, underscored this point at the summit, stating, “The UAE views investment in Africa’s water security as an investment in global stability, prosperity, and shared climate goals.”

For its part, Senegal brings a vital African perspective to the partnership. As highlighted by the World Bank, the country faces significant water stress, particularly in the Dakar-Mbour-Thiès triangle, where over 50% of its GDP is produced. Senegal’s challenges include overexploited aquifers, pollution, and a reliance on a few key water sources like the Lac de Guiers. As a result, the nation has prioritized solutions such as desalination, wastewater recycling, and improving water governance. Its role as a co-host allows it to champion the specific needs of African nations and ensure that the outcomes of the 2026 conference are not just aspirational but are grounded in the realities of the continent.

The Six Themes and the Path to the 2026 UN Water Conference

The AU-AIP Africa Water Investment Summit serves as a critical preparatory meeting for the 2026 UN Water Conference. The UN General Assembly recently adopted six interactive dialogue themes for the conference, placing a particular emphasis on “Investments for Water,” but also covering other crucial areas:

• Water for People: Focusing on the human rights to water and sanitation, particularly for vulnerable populations, to build healthy societies and economies.
• Water for Prosperity: Valuing water and addressing the water-energy-food nexus to drive integrated and sustainable resource management.
• Water for Planet: Addressing the link between water and climate change, biodiversity, and desertification to build resilience and reduce disaster risk.
• Water for Cooperation: Promoting transboundary and international cooperation for shared water resources.
• Water in Multilateral Processes: Integrating SDG 6 into the broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• Investments for Water: The theme that was the central focus of the Cape Town summit, concentrating on financing, technology, and capacity building.

The summit was an opportunity to translate the broad strokes of these themes into actionable plans. South Africa, in its capacity as the G20 President, hosted the summit as a key input to this preparatory process, ensuring that the dialogue was grounded in a practical, results-oriented framework.

Innovative Financing: Blended Finance and Beyond

A central discussion point at the summit was the need to move beyond traditional development aid and towards innovative financing models that can attract private capital. The conversation went beyond simply showcasing successful models, but also critically examined their limitations. While the session showcased models like blended finance, concessional loans, and guarantees, some experts cautioned against seeing them as a complete solution.

Blended finance, for example, is the strategic use of public development finance to mobilize additional private commercial finance for sustainable development projects. It can involve using grants to “de-risk” a project, making it more attractive to private investors. While this has worked for some projects, it has not yet reached the scale needed to solve the US$30 billion annual gap in Africa. As one participant noted, the challenge isn’t just about finding the right financial instruments but about making “development investable” in the first place by addressing fundamental issues like policy barriers, regulatory uncertainty, and weak governance. The summit explored solutions to this, including:

• De-risking Projects: Creating mechanisms, such as political risk insurance or government-backed guarantees, that mitigate the risks for private investors.
• Improving Bankability and Pipeline Readiness: Standardizing metrics, promoting data transparency, and using aggregation platforms to present projects to investors in a clear, standardized way.
• Partnerships beyond Finance: The summit highlighted the crucial role of public–private–philanthropic partnerships, where different actors—governments, corporations, and philanthropic organizations—collaborate to provide a mix of capital, technical expertise, and risk-sharing to a project.

The dialogue in Cape Town will directly inform the “Investments for Water” theme at the 2026 UN Water Conference, providing a blueprint for how countries can move from talk to tangible, funded projects.

Towards Tangible Outcomes: The Road Ahead

The Africa Water Investment Summit was more than a standalone event; it was a key part of a continuous process of consultation and collaboration. The UAE and Senegal are working with their partners to gather stakeholder perspectives and translate today’s high-level dialogue into concrete recommendations and deliverables. The goal is to ensure that the 2026 UN Water Conference is a watershed moment that delivers measurable progress, not just another symbolic event.

The partnership signals a fundamental shift in how water security is being addressed on the global stage. It recognizes that in a world of interconnected challenges, no single nation can solve the problem alone. By combining the UAE’s technological and financial resources with Senegal’s on-the-ground expertise and advocacy for the African continent, the two co-hosts are setting a new standard for international cooperation. Their joint effort is poised to accelerate the flow of investment into water projects, build critical infrastructure, and ultimately, bring the world one step closer to achieving universal access to clean water and sanitation. This partnership demonstrates that with political will and strategic collaboration, even the most daunting global challenges can be transformed into opportunities for shared prosperity.

This initiative is a critical piece of a larger global effort. The challenges of water security, climate resilience, and sustainable development are deeply intertwined. By addressing the financial gap in water infrastructure, the UAE and Senegal are not only investing in pipes and dams but also in human health, economic growth, and a more stable and sustainable future for all. The world will be watching as they move forward with their ambitious plan, hoping that the seeds of collaboration planted in Cape Town will blossom into tangible results for billions of people.

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By: Montel Kamau

Serrari Financial Analyst

18th August, 2025