By Hafsa Obeng/Emelia Nkrumah
Accra, Oct 19, GNA – The Ministry for Sanitation and Water Resources, IRC and UNICEF are set to hold the three-day maiden ‘All Systems Go Africa’ Symposium from today Wednesday, October 19 to Friday October 21, in Accra.
It is aimed at uniting systems expertise and political leadership to accelerate universal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene in Africa.
Mr Amidu Issahaku Chinnia, Deputy Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, said the symposium had the potential to mark an important turning point for the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector in Africa.
He said it would also provide an opportunity for Africa to advance a continental agenda that would focus on efforts towards achieving effective and resilient governing, management and operating systems for water, sanitation, and hygiene.
“With the three years to go for Africa to achieve sustainable access to drinking water and sanitation services that are safe and adequate to meet basic needs for all by 2025, and less than 10 years for the global sustainable Development Goals, there is the need to review and change our work to improve the quality and reach of public services like water and sanitation.
The Minister said in Africa, the step towards creating the ‘world we want’ has been constrained by the ravaging effects of climate change, COVID-19, among others, diverting actions of governments and businesses away from critical SDG interventions and squeezed funding for the Africa vision and sustainable development overall.
Mr Chinnia reiterated government’s commitment to the tenets of the SDGs and assured that government would continue to forge innovative partnerships with systems thinkers to stimulate urgent action and catalytic investments to accelerate progress towards the Africa and global goals.
Mr Juste Nansi, Director IRC’s Africa Regional Programme, and IRC Burkina Faso Country Director, said in March 2000, African Leaders signed up to the vision of an Africa, where there would be sustainable access to drinking water and sanitation that were safe and adequate to meet basic needs of all by 2025.
He said 22 years on, 395 million Africans, still lacked access to safely managed drinking water and 504 million live without safe sanitation services.43 out of 46 countries reviewed were off track to achieving universal access to basic drinking water by 2030, while 26 out of the 48 counties reviewed were off track to achieving universal access to basic drinking water by 2030.
“While there remain a huge deficit in infrastructure, many of the available facilities are inadequately managed, breakdown prematurely, or are poorly regulated, underfunded and fall short of the dignifies public service standards put forward in the human right to water and sanitation.”
Mr Nansi noted that there had been slow progress because governance and management systems for delivering the ambitions were weak, and critical functions were underperforming, hence the need to build strong systems to accelerate and sustain growth.
He said the symposium would provide Africa the opportunity to kick-start a continental agenda that would focus on efforts towards achieving effective and resilient governance, management, operating systems in water sanitation and hygiene.
“The Symposium will attract over 250 participants from over 22 African Countries, Regional institutions like AMCOW/AUC and African Development Bank, WASH experts, health professional, economists, public servants, researchers’ private sector, among others.”
Mr Fiachra McAsey, UNICEF Ghana Deputy Representative said a report from the WHO, UNICEF joint monetary programme 2021, indicated that only 65 percent of the population of the Sub-Saharan Africa had access to basic water, adding that around 36 percent had access to basic sanitation.
He said the symposium would therefore bring on board various kinds of opportunities to strengthen WASH service delivery, for the wellbeing of the population at large, including the vulnerable, especially children.
“We can say that 88 percent of the population now is able to access basic water, another country is on track for universal access to basic water by 2030.”
He noted that UNICEF had engaged the private sector to be able to take advantage of the prospect of the WASH delivery system and developed policies that would focus on climate change.
IRC is an international think thank actively building stronger water, sanitation, and hygiene systems- from the bottom up and the top down.
They support countries to build strong local and national services, underpinned by resilient systems, that transform lives and build equity, justice, and opportunity for all, while UNICEF is dedicated to advancing the rights and development of children and their families across 190 countries in the world, particularly the most vulnerable and excluded.
In water, sanitation, and hygiene, UNICEF works to support governments to identify challenges, develop evidence-based policies and approaches to address the challenges.
GNA