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From the World Walks for Water and Sanitation to the High Level Meeting - making positive change happen!

Tuesday, 1st May 2012, 12:45pm

Natasha Horsfield is End Water Poverty's Campaigns and Communications intern. Here she tells us all about her thoughts on the World Walks for Water and Sanitation and the Sanitation, and Water for All High Level Meeting which followed.

When I first began working on the World Walks for Water and Sanitation I was excited, but it was difficult to get a real sense of the scale of the campaign. Yet as the months went by and we planned and produced resources for the campaign, we heard about an increasing number of walks which were being planned around the world and the number of people walking crept up every week. As I contacted our partners in various countries across Africa, Asia and Europe to find out more information about their plans for their walks, I began to form a better picture of the creativity and reach of the campaign and my excitement grew as March and the campaign dates approached...and then finally people started walking!

The stories and photos began to flood in from around the world and at last I truly saw the global reach of the World Walks for Water and Sanitation! Children and teachers, women and grass-roots farmers, local activists and politicians, North and South; thousands of people (373,044 of them to be exact!) from every walk of life joined together with the shared goal of making their governments take action to achieve water and sanitation for all - and it has been really inspirational to witness! People walked to raise their voices about water and sanitation issues in their local communities, but also crucially to ask their Ministers, in both developing and donor countries, to attend the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting in Washington, where they would have the opportunity to make firm commitments on providing water and sanitation for all and to build essential alliances allowing this to be achieved.

Three weeks after the World Walks for Water and Sanitation when the High Level Meeting finally came around, the Ministerial attendance was brilliant, with ministers from Uganda and the UK, Nigeria, Nepal and the Netherlands, Togo and Timor-Leste, and many countries in-between all attending! Yet the World Walks for Water and Sanitation was about more than just attendance, it was also about getting them to make the kind of concrete commitments that result in real political change, and we were not disappointed!

At the pre-High Level Sector Ministers meeting, Ministers for Water and Sanitation, Environment and Health collectively responded to our calls by committing to decrease open defecation by 15%, improve water service access by 5% and increase access to safe sanitation services by 7%, which if implemented will provide 56 million people with safe drinking water and 78 million people with sanitation over the next two years. At the High Level Meeting Kenya committed to providing an additional 20 million people with access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015. Benin’s minister committed to increasing its budget allocations for 2013-2014by 100% per year forbasic sanitation and Nigeria promised to progressively increase the budget allocation for water and sanitation over the next three years.

On the donor side the UK has doubled their commitment to reach 30 million people with water and sanitation to 60 million over the next three years and Germany has committed to reaching 30 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2015, including better targeting funding to the poorest and most vulnerable. The Dutch Minister for European Affairs and International Cooperation Ben Knapen also announced a new initiative between the Netherlands and UK to bring water and sanitation to an additional 10 million people in nine countries in West and Central Africa, and in all, the Netherlands intends to scale up its assistance to reach 25 million more people globally over the next four years.

I was blow away by the scale of global mobilisation achieved by the World Walks for Water and Sanitation and am extremely proud to have been a part of it. However, the real reward for everyone who raised their voices for change and walked in solidarity with those who walk everyday to access water and inadequate sanitation has been these commitments and the positive change which happened and will continue to happen as a result! For everyone who took part, this is confirmation that by coming together we can make positive change happen, but we mustn’t stop there. We must ensure that the promises made are kept and that more people are able to access clean water and sanitation as a result, and now is the time to do so!

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SWA High Level Meeting Press Release!

Friday, 20th April 2012, 11:20pm

Washington, DC, April 20, 2012 – World leaders from 40 countries commit to ending water and sanitation crisis at historic meeting

End Water Poverty welcomes the commitments made at the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting. More and better targeted funding is needed if these ambitious goals are to be reached.

An unprecedented number of Ministers of Finance, Development and Water from 40 countries, along with development banks and civil society, came together today for this historic meeting to accelerate efforts to bring clean water and safe sanitation to millions.

Ministers of Water, Sanitation, Environment and Health from across Africa and Asia announced that in each of their countries they will strive to decrease open defecation by 15%, improve access to water by 5% and increase access to safe sanitation by 7% by 2014. These promises would provide56 million people with safe drinking water and 78 million people with sanitation over the next two years (WaterAid figures).

Rudy Amenga-Etego, from the African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation (ANEW) who represented civil society at meeting said: “We’re pleased to see ambitious commitments being made to get water and sanitation to our citizens. We now need to see new funding, clear plans and better targeting to make sure these promises can be kept.”

Yakub Hossein, from the Freshwater Action Network South Asia (FANSA) said: “Only by working together, can we ensure that we start to see real progress for the poorest and most vulnerable communities. As civil society we commit ourselves to working together with governments and communities to tackle this crisis as well as ensuring that world leaders keep the promises they made today.”

Some developing countries went even further. Benin committed to increasing its budget allocations for 2013-2014by 100% per year forbasic sanitation, whilst Burkina Faso committed to allocating at least US$35m to water and sanitation annually and promised to eradicate open defecation by 2015. Kenya pledged that a further 20 million people would gain access to drinking water and sanitation by 2015 and Nigeria promised to progressively increase the budget allocation for water and sanitation over the next three years.

Crucially, developing countries called on donor countries to support them in reaching these ambitious targets by increasing resources and expertise for water and sanitation and better targeting aid to the poorest countries and communities.

Donor countries responded by making commitments of their own, with the UK announcing that they are doubling their commitment for water and sanitation over the next two years from 30 to 60 million people globally.

Dutch Minister for European Affairs and International Cooperation Ben Knapen announced a new initiative between the Netherlands and UK to bring water and sanitation to an additional 10 million people in nine countries in West and Central Africa. In all, the Netherlands intends to scale up its assistance to reach 25 million more people globally over the next four years.

Knapen said: “In the current economic climate we are not taking this decision lightly. We are giving a significant amount of money to UNICEF to help in this work, but when you count the health and economic benefits, and in particular the lives of children, the government of the Netherlands believes this is unquestionably the right call.”

Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development, said:“For too long, water and sanitation has not received the priority it deserves from the international community. That is why the Coalition Government will commit to helping over 60 million people access basic services, such as communal water pumps.”

Other donors followed suit with Germany committing to reaching 30 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa with water and sanitation by 2015, focusing on “the poor and extremely poor population… and the most vulnerable, such as slum dwellers and children.”

USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah announced that USAID will join the Sanitation and Water for All Partnership. Australia will also join the partnership.

End Water Poverty welcomes these commitments but emphasises that there is still a funding shortfall if countries are to reach these ambitious targets and get water and sanitation to those most in need.

Rolien Sasse, CEO of Simavi in the Netherlands and End Water Poverty civil society representative on the SWA steering committee said: “Civil society now has a crucial role in both supporting governments to deliver and holding them to account on these commitments –End Water Poverty members will be leading the way.”