By
Edmund Smith-Asante, ACCRA
 |
| Caught engaging in open defaecation on a beach |
African governments have made a
10-point commitment to ensure improvement in sanitation and hygiene on the
continent and also endorsed a declaration to follow them through.
The 10-point commitment is part of
the declaration named the “Ngor Declaration on Sanitation and Hygiene” which
was agreed by ministers responsible for sanitation and hygiene on behalf of
their governments at a recently held sanitation conference in Dakar, Senegal,
dubbed AfricaSan 4.
The theme for the conference, which
also attracted about 1,000 participants from governmental agencies, civil
society groups, donors and development banks, multilaterals, research
organisations and the private sector, was: “Making Sanitation for All a Reality
in Africa”.
The
commitments
Numbering about 40, the ministers
committed themselves to focusing on the poorest, most marginalised and unserved
to progressively eliminate inequalities in access and use and implement
national and local strategies, with emphasis on equity and sustainability.
They said their governments would
also mobilise support and resources at the highest political level for
sanitation and hygiene to disproportionately prioritise sanitation and hygiene
in national development plans.
They pledged to establish and track sanitation
and hygiene budget lines that consistently increased annually to reach a
minimum of 0.5 per cent GDP by 2020.
They also promised to ensure strong
leadership and coordination at all levels to build and sustain governance for
sanitation and hygiene across sectors, especially water, health, nutrition,
education, gender and the environment.
African leaders further assured the
people that they would develop and fund strategies to bridge the sanitation and
hygiene human resource capacity gap at all levels and also ensure inclusive,
safely managed sanitation services and functional hand-washing facilities in
public institutions and spaces.
They also indicated their readiness
to “progressively eliminate untreated waste, encouraging its productive use”,
and enable, as well as engage, the private sector in developing innovative
sanitation and hygiene products and services, especially for the marginalised
and unserved.
No stone would be left unturned to
establish government-led monitoring, reporting, evaluation, learning and review
systems and enable continued active engagement with the African Ministers
Council on Water (AMCOW’s) AfricaSan process, the governments pledged.
Call
from ministers
The commitments made
notwithstanding, the declaration also enjoined other stakeholders to partner
governments to achieve their aim of ensuring adequate and sustainable
sanitation and hygiene services for all.
It called on all people living in
Africa, especially the youth, to utilise and maintain sanitation and hygiene
services with propriety and dignity.
AMCOW is also to prioritise and
facilitate adequate resourcing for sanitation and hygiene by mobilising
dedicated, substantive new sources of financing and facilitate the
establishment and management of systems and processes for performance
monitoring and accountability against the Ngor Declaration.
Training institutions in Africa are
to strengthen local capacity to deliver appropriate services in line with
demand, while research institutions are to strengthen the evidence base and
develop innovative and locally appropriate solutions.
The civil society in Africa has been
tasked to forge a cohesive, coherent and transparent vision and strategy to
work with all stakeholders to achieve the Ngor Declaration and the duty of
traditional institutions, religious leaders and faith-based organisations is to
strongly support equitable sanitation and hygiene activities in their
communities.
The private sector is to increase
its engagement in the entire sanitation and hygiene value chain to improve
innovation and efficiency, while the development banks, donors and partners are
to increase their support to government-led efforts for universal access to
sanitation and hygiene and to match this financial support with responsible and
accountable engagement.
The
Ngor Declaration
The Ngor Declaration on Sanitation
and Hygiene is a new vision which, in line with the proposed UN Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), aims at achieving universal access to adequate and
sustainable sanitation and hygiene services and eliminate open defecation, by
2030.
Ngor means ‘Dignity’ in Wolof,
Senegal’s national language, and is seen as an appropriate name for commitments
that emphasise equity and sanitation as a service, rather than just
infrastructure, thereby underscoring the need for behavioural change and
sustainability.
The Ngor Declaration, which was
adopted on May 27, 2015, replaces an earlier similar one, the eThekwini
Declaration, which was adopted in 2008 by African leaders at the Second African
Conference on Sanitation and Hygiene (AfricaSan 2) held in Durban, South
Africa, from February 18-21, 2008, with firm resolutions to place sanitation
and hygiene at the top of the development agenda in Africa.
Writer’s email: edmund.asante@graphic.com.gh
This
story was first published by the Daily
Graphic on July 29, 2015
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