High Level Meeting of Sanitation and Water for All targets finance ministers

The first High Level Meeting of the Sanitation and Water for All global partnership is targeting Ministers of Finance and Ministers of Development Cooperation. They are considered to have the most influence when it comes to securing the investments needed for “Getting on-track for the sanitation and water MDG targets”, the focus for the meeting to be held on 23 April 2010 in Washington, DC, USA.

Sanitation and Water for All is a joint initiative launched by the UK and the Netherlands in September 2008, which now involves 17 other donors, multi-lateral agencies, civil society and other development partners. The initiative allocates £5 million (6 million Euros) over five years to an annual report and high level meeting focused on reviewing progress. A further joint Dutch-UK commitment was made of £85 million (100 million Euros) over the same period to help up to 20 poor countries develop and implement their own national water and sanitation plans.

The 2010 High Level Meeting will take place just before the weekend 2010 World Bank Spring Meetings which are attended by Ministers of Finance and Ministers for Development Cooperation. UNICEF will host the first High Level Meeting.

One of the expected outcomes of the meeting will be a greater understanding of the linkages between water, sanitation and economic growth. To support this outcome, economic case study reports for sanitation and drinking water have been prepared for 19 countries, 14 from Africa and 5 from Asia.

Another expected outcome is the “identification of specific steps countries can take to advance access to, and mobilize resources for, increasing access to safe water and sanitation – particularly countries with greatest needs; including the development of technical assistance tools to provide support for the development and implementation of national water and sanitation plans/strategies”.

More information on the High Level Meeting and on the Sanitation and Water for All initiative’s Global Framework for Action can be found on the web site of UN-Water.

Great stink, great disgrace

More than 1 billion people in developing countries still have no toilets and 900 million people no clean water, International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander [from DFID, the UK Department for International Development] said [on 28 Oct 2008] on the 150th anniversary of the Great Stink in London.

Douglas Alexander announced an increased effort to bring an end to the sanitation crisis in developing countries by building toilets for more than 50 million people and providing clean water to more than 25 million people in the developing world over the next five years. DFID will meet its commitment of £200 million to Africa by 2010 and maintain this until 2013.

Read more: DFID, 28 Oct 2008

Watch below the End Water Poverty’s video on The Great Stink

DFID (UK): New water and sanitation policy launched

Twenty-five million people across Africa could gain access to safe water and basic sanitation over the next five years as a result of a new policy launched today by International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander [of DFID, the UK Department for International Development].

The policy will see DFID work to meet its £200 million commitment to address the serious water and sanitation challenges that condemn people in the developing world to poverty, hardship, disease and death. The steps that will be taken are set out in the paper Water: An increasingly precious resource, Sanitation: A matter of dignity (1373kb).

Read more: DFID, 28 Oct 2008

DFID: European Union raises profile of African sanitation

In this, the International Year of Sanitation, a group that is co-chaired by DFID is helping to improve water and sanitation throughout Africa by strengthening the links between African countries and the European Union.

Through a number of key meetings, the EU Water Initiative-Africa Working Group has brought about policy dialogue at the highest level and proved crucial in the development of an Africa EU Statement on Sanitation. (…)

Read all ISRIA.info

Sub-Saharan Africa ‘will be without sanitation till 2100

The population of sub-Saharan Africa will not have access to adequate sanitation until the 22nd century unless international efforts are dramatically stepped up, charities have warned.

They also claim that such little progress has been made on poverty targets that the population will also lack adequate access to safe water until 2035.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) Tearfund and WaterAid made the claims in a report entitled Sanitation and Water – Why We Need a Global Framework for Action. (…)

The NGO report claims a majority of international aid goes to middle income countries such as China, Jordan, Iraq, Malaysia, Indonesia, while less than a quarter goes to the least developed countries such as those in sub-Saharan Africa. (…)

Read all Telegraph.co.uk and WaterAid, 11 Sep 2008