Enabling private capital and mobilisation will take centre stage as stakeholders in the water sector gather for the World Bank’s Eastern and Southern Africa Leadership Summit on universal access to water supply, sanitation and hygiene.
Hard on the heels of the week-long 7th Africa Sanitation and Hygiene Conference held in Namibia last week, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) Director-General, Dr Sean Phillips, is participating in the Eastern and Southern Africa Leadership Summit on universal access to Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), currently underway in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The two-day summit, taking place from 14 - 15 November 2023, will focus on enabling private capital and mobilisation, and will promote critical, tangible inputs on strategies, actions and policy reforms to boost private sector financing and participation of the water and sanitation sector.
The event, which is co-hosted by the Ministry of Finance in Ethiopia and the World Bank, seeks to help identify and seize opportunities to increase private and public funding, and implement the necessary sector reforms to serve all Eastern and Southern African residents still lacking access to WASH.
The discussions at the summit will centre on three strategic actions of systems change, including policy and institutional reforms that promote efficient use of public and private resources; investments that are pivotal for the transformation of the water sector, and country and regional platforms for collaboration.
The summit will build on previous discussions and will advance the dialogue on country plans to accelerate access to WASH, and further provide an opportunity for in-depth discussions to understand the implications of implementing systems change.
The event will serve as an interactive platform for stakeholders, including water sector ministers, finance ministers, development partners, and private sector leaders to discuss opportunities for collaboration.
Phillips said the discussions at the summit will focus on what it would take to reduce existing inequalities in WASH services worldwide and will promote critical, tangible inputs on strategies, actions, and policy reforms to boost private sector financing and participation.
“The high-level ministerial and technical discussions will help identify and seize opportunities to increase private and public funding and implement the necessary sector reforms to serve all Eastern and Southern African residents that are still lacking access to WASH.
“The Department of Water and Sanitation welcomes this initiative by the World Bank to advocate for private funding programmes that will advance the WASH objectives. As you know, South Africa has also committed itself to achieve goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which focuses on the right to water and sanitation services for all,” Phillips said.
The WASH initiative encompasses 18 countries, ranging from fragile and conflict-affected States to middle-income countries.
While the world is progressing towards SDG 6, one of the 17 United Nations SDGs, which advocates for availability and sustainable management of clean water and sanitation for all, most African countries are lagging to achieve this goal.
The sub-Saharan Africa is the only region sliding backward in terms of WASH. Over the last 20 years, access to basic water supply and sanitation has declined, resulting in 37 million more people without basic water supply and 247 million more without basic sanitation.
Despite all efforts being made, these gaps are continuously growing.
The DWS said the implications of limited access to basic water supply and sanitation were discussed at previous events, such as the UN (United Nations) Water Conference in March 2023 and the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings in April 2023.
“During these high-level events, the African Ministers of Water and of Finance embraced a strategy to effect change that will grant universal WASH access. The ministers have also committed to establish and monitor regional platforms to track progress of the initiative,” the department said. – SAnews.gov.za
