Dear readers,

One of the highlights of the Utility Platform in the last quarter of 2023 was certainly our participation in the German-Ukrainian municipal partnership conference in Leipzig. In her closing statement, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze spoke of "the impressive commitment of our municipal water utilities". We are very pleased that the commitment in the solidarity utility partnerships and the many donations from the water utilities are now also being recognised at the highest political level. Around 550 high-ranking representatives from municipalities, districts, city associations and municipal utilities accepted the invitation to the sixth German-Ukrainian municipal partnership conference in Leipzig. In addition to the optimisation of cooperation and direct aid, the main focus was on strategic considerations regarding medium to long-term projects. "Water and sanitation supply in Ukraine - Which partnership approaches help during the war and during reconstruction?" was therefore also the topic of the Utility Platform's expert forum.

Around the time of the partnership conference, two delegations of municipal water suppliers from Ukraine used their stay in Germany to visit their partners. Colleagues from Sumy and Chernihiv travelled to OOWV in Oldenburg and experts from Kyiv visited Hamburg Wasser. In addition to improvements in management, operation and maintenance, the focus here was also on discussing ideas for reorganising the water and wastewater companies as part of the post-war reconstruction in Ukraine.

In this issue, we also provide deeper insights into the cooperation with African water utilities. Darby Gounden (Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality), Samantha Westphal (City of Oldenburg) and Meike Lenzen (OOWV) report on the benefits of the utility partnership. The funding applied for as part of the SKEW's "Municipal Climate Protection and Adaptation Projects (FKKP)" has now also been approved, giving the partnership further impetus.

The utility partnership Lukanga Water & Sanitation Company in Zambia with Gelsenwasser and Emschergenossenschaft/Lippeverband has a special form of support: engineer Michaela Karolina Braun is working at Lukanga as a development advisor and explains in an interview in this issue how she is helping to implement planned measures. Her position is being funded for two years by the "Expert Fund for Municipal Partnerships Worldwide" from Engagement Global/SKEW and GIZ. City partnerships that would also like staff support can submit an expression of interest to the Expert Fund by 31 January 2024.

And please save the date of 24 to 26 April. All companies involved in utility partnerships are then invited to our networking event in Dresden, which will also mark the end of the pilot project.

We wish you happy holidays and a good start to 2024.

Your Utility Platform team
Heiko Heidemann (GIZ) and Linda Engel (SKEW)