Anna Bjerde, World Bank MD of Operations, on How Partnerships Can Help Us Scale

In this interview, World Bank Group Managing Director of Operations Anna Bjerde discusses why water security is fundamental to jobs, resilience and economic growth, and how partnerships with institutions such as the OPEC Fund can deliver impact at scale.

Through Water Forward, the World Bank and partners are putting water security at the heart of development. Why does that matter now?

First of all, water is absolutely essential for humankind. We know that, but what we are also emphasizing with Water Forward is that economic growth, security and the creation of jobs cannot happen without secure, clean, reliable and affordable water. We have put an ambitious program together, which is about water for people, water for food and water for the planet — and we're delighted to see that through so many partnerships coming together with us on this, we're going to be connecting 1 billion people by 2030.

How is better investment going to be important for strengthening resilience, jobs and long-term growth?

It starts with taking care of the water we have. Water is a resource that needs to be managed very carefully and efficiently. That means we need to invest in infrastructure and systems to reduce the water that gets lost along the way because there is such a scarcity of water in many parts of the world. We cannot afford that so much of it seeps out of pipes and never reaches the consumer. That makes it an unaffordable resource and asset that would not yield more investment. What we need is a positive circle of extraction, flow and cost recovery, so that we can get further investments into the sector. That's what's different. We're looking at it as a system that is foundational for the creation of jobs and economic growth — which needs to be managed scientifically but also from a business point of view.

How important are partnerships between the World Bank, OPEC Fund and other development banks for pushing this agenda at scale?

Partnerships are essential to everything we do. The World Bank Group is now very much focused on a number of large global initiatives, so that we can respond to the most pressing development challenges the world is facing. These development challenges need to be achievable and addressed at scale. If you're going to set a goal like providing 1 billion people with access to clean water by 2030, you cannot do it alone. By setting these very ambitious targets, we need to work together.

So these partnerships are critical, and I have to say, in the case of the OPEC Fund we have a very strong partnership, so much so that I can capture it in two phrases. One phrase is “from ambition to delivery” because we now have so many projects that we're doing together. The other is the fact that the OPEC Fund has become the seventh largest co-financier to the World Bank Group.

We're delighted about this partnership. I have to commend the speed at which the OPEC Fund has joined us in many of these initiatives, demonstrating the scale of impact we can have when we're working together.