The eighth Annual General Meeting of the Eastern and Southern Africa Water and Sanitation (ESAWAS) Regulators Association was held in Maputo, Mozambique from 20th–22nd August, 2014. The meeting was hosted by the Water and Sanitation Regulatory Council (CRA) at the Girassol Indy Congress Hotel under the theme ‘Enhancing Regulatory Governance’.
The three-day meeting which drew a total of eleven countries, had over 50 participants from the six members of ESAWAS, as well as, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) of Ghana, the Regulation Unit under the Ministry of Water & Environment of Uganda, representatives from the Ministry of Electricity, Dams, Irrigation and Water Resources from South Sudan, as well as from South Sudan Urban Water Corporation, the Department of Water Affairs of Botswana and representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Burundi. Local representation was also from FIPAG, AIAS and local providers. The opening was graced by the Vice Minister of Public Works and Housing – Mr. Cadmiel Filiane Muthemba.
The meeting was structured around the theme ‘Enhancing Regulatory Governance’, also referred to as the “how” of regulation. Regulatory governance, is concerned with the institutional and legal arrangements of the regulator that provide for decision making independence and the processes that enhance its credibility and legitimacy
The programme conducted over three-days included presentations on:
- legislative frameworks and appellate process;
- independence of Board members;
- accountability to stakeholders, strategic planning and funding for regulators;
- adapting lessons in setting-up the regulatory framework;
- regulation of sanitation;
- regulation of small and medium cities through an extended framework; and
- benchmarking large cities in the region.
Day three was dedicated to the Annual General Meeting to discuss business of the ESAWAS Regulators Association.
