ROCKBlue Receives Grant From the Osprey Foundation to Help Close Water Financing Gap in Africa

ROCKBlue today announced receipt of a grant of an undisclosed sum from the Osprey Foundation, a grant maker that supports water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) initiatives that deliver services to poor communities. The award will support ROCKBlue’s Access to Capital, Oversight and Reporting Nexus (ACORN) initiative, which is aimed at increasing opportunities for water utilities to attain critical funding in sub-Saharan Africa.

“ROCKBlue is honored to have been chosen to steward this innovative, groundbreaking initiative with the funds the Osprey Foundation has provided,” said Peter Macy, ROCKBlue President and Founder. “This critical financial support will allow us to support our water utility partners’ efforts to jumpstart their operations and exponentially improve their financial performance, ultimately helping them to overcome the unique set of challenges they face in water service delivery and expansion in the urban areas in which they operate.”

The grant will provide financial resources for ROCKBlue to implement pilot projects aimed at having a sustainable, scalable economic impact on Lusaka Water Supply and Sanitation Company (LWSC), which serves 3 million people in Zambia, and Lilongwe Water Board (LWB), a water utility meeting the water service needs of roughly one million people in Malawi.

ROCKBlue will work with utility partners to identify problems and mitigate challenges, create and leverage Performance Improvement Plans (PIP), improve the measurement and monitoring of short-, medium- and long-term successes and pursue opportunities to access financing. The initiative builds on existing ROCKBlue-led programs utilizing its WASH sector expertise and deep relationships to support water utilities service delivery and growth strategies.

“Thanks to this valuable contribution from the Osprey Foundation, ROCKBlue will deepen its support of our local utility partners in Africa, providing them with resources they need to strengthen their financial foundation and, ultimately, improve their creditworthiness,” said Satish Menon, ROCKBlue Co-founder and ACORN Project Manager. “We are thrilled to be partnering with the Osprey Foundation on this initiative that will improve WASH outcomes in a new and very unique way by addressing barriers to accessing financing for water service providers in Africa.”

Lack of access to capital is one of the key barriers to progress in improving and expanding safely managed water and sanitation services in the developing world. Sub-Saharan African countries lose 5 percent of their GDP annually due to a lack of clean water and poor sanitation, according to the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa. United Nations statistics show that 40 percent of people worldwide who lack access to clean water live in sub-Saharan Africa — with the fastest-growing numbers of them living in cities.

The Osprey Foundation grant follows a recent grant received from the Vitol Foundation, which will also support ROCKBlue’s ACORN initiative.