Sanitation and Water for All is a global partnership which aims to address critical barriers to achieving long term sanitation and drinking water for everyone. These barriers include insufficient political prioritisation, lack of capacity in the sector to develop and implement effective plans and strategies, and uncoordinated and inadequate investments. Its immediate focus is to achieve the water- and sanitation-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the countries that are most off-track for reaching the MDG targets.
High Level Meeting
On 23 April 2010 UNICEF hosted the historic first annual High-Level Meeting on Sanitation and Water for All at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC.
At the meeting, finance and water sector Ministers from 18 countries met with representatives from 13 donor groups, seven UN agencies and numerous non-governmental organizations.
Ministers articulated the need to make aid for water and sanitation projects a political priority. They also committed to addressing appropriate allocations for these basic services. However, there were few specific targets set by donors to increase resources to the poorest countries. A number of developing countries made additional individual pledges to improve sanitation and water: Bangladesh committed to spending an extra $200m over the next five years, and Senegal to an extra $24m per year. Many others, including Ghana, Liberia and Ethiopia, committed to raising domestic budgets to meet regional commitments, such as that of Africa to spend 0.5 per cent of GNI on sanitation.
Visit the Sanitation and Water for All website.
