Dakar, Senegal 24 March 2022: The growing partnership between the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and Morocco’s National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) contributes greatly in strengthening South-South Cooperation and Knowledge sharing in the water sector.

This was part of the discussion on Thursday at the 9^th World Water Forum in Dakar, Senegal, during a session on “Leveraging Innovative Finance to Strengthen North-South, South-South and Triangular Water Cooperation,” jointly organized by IsDB and ONEE.

IsDB Vice-President (Operations), Dr. Mansur Muhtar, delivered the keynote speech during the session.

“Since its establishment, IsDB has championed South-South Cooperation among its member countries as one of its key founding principles,” Dr. Muhtar stated.  

The entire 57 member countries of IsDB are from the global south, thereby placing the Bank in a unique position to strengthen South-South Cooperation.

The IsDB Vice-President told participants at the session that as the only Multilateral Development Bank whose entire membership is drawn from the global south, the Bank has reflected this in its operations by bringing member countries together to help one another in solving common development challenges across a wide spectrum of sectors and thematic areas.

Since inception, the total financing of projects in the water and sanitation sector has reached US$ 7.7 Billion in IsDB member countries according to Dr. Mansur Muhtar.  

The Vice-President expressed the willingness of IsDB to continue utilizing its triangular cooperation mechanism, the Reverse Linkage, to tap on the wealth of knowledge of centers of excellence such as ONEE.

Speaking during the session, Moncef Sudani, Senior Regional Coordinator (MENA & Europe) in the Regional Cooperation and Integration Department of IsDB stated: “Through our cooperation with ONEE, we have supported ONEA in Burkina Faso to develop water quality treatment for the population. IsDB has capitalized on the expertise of ONEE to support the capital city of Guinea in developing a sanitation network.”

Dr. Asma EL Kasmi, Director of Cooperation and Communication at ONEE stated that water needs financing as much as finance needs water.