
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has called on development
partners to scale up support for implementation of sanitation programmes
to fast track Africa’s progress and deliver on its promise to the
continent.
“Achieving the Ngor Commitments and the ambitious
targets for sanitation and hygiene within the Global Development Agenda
can only become a reality if we scale up our work,” Osward Chanda,
Division Manager in the Bank’s Water Development and Sanitation
Department said.
He made the presentation before the Development
Partners Dialogue – a collective of international development
organizations, governments and NGOs working in the sanitation sector.
This
year’s AfricaSan International Task Force, held February 18-22, 2019,
in Cape Town, South Africa, was themed, “Transforming Sanitation in
Africa: Accelerating progress towards the Ngor Commitments to achieve
the Social Development Goals”.
The conference was co-convened by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW).
The
Ngor Declaration on Sanitation and Hygiene was adopted at the
AfricaSan4 conference in 2015, defines clear, achievable commitments
intended to deliver dignity and equity in sanitation and hygiene in
Africa by 2030.
Chanda cited United Nations estimates that show
that some 734 million Africans do not have access to basic sanitation
infrastructure, which translates to 62% of the population on the African
continent. He also pointed out that there are huge disparities between
service levels in rural and urban areas.
“We
need to optimize the resources available and ensure harmonization of
our approaches as development partners, in order to increase
opportunities for regional member countries and for them to make the
best of the existing resources and leverage on finances available,”
Chanda said.
He laid out a presentation of what the Bank has planned to achieve these goals.
These
plans aim to mobilize resources from a variety of donors, including
traditional development partners and the private sector, and draw up an
initial pipeline of inclusive Sanitation projects.
The Bank plans
also to promote investment opportunities and leverage additional
financing from the private sector and other donors.
It shall
support innovative and catalytic projects, thus attracting additional
funding and enabling project developers to mobilize funding for their
innovative projects.
The development partners further called for
resource mobilization for sanitation and hygiene and the development of
co-financing arrangements to replenish sector wide financing mechanisms
such as the AMCOW-initiated African Water Facility and the Rural Water
Supply and Sanitation Initiative, both hosted by the African Development
Bank.
The Bank also took part in a special AfricaSan 5 Conference
tribute to the late Piers Cross, the South African activist who
advocated for water and sanitation for the poor.
Wambui Gichuri,
the African Development Bank’s Director of Water Development and
Sanitation, presented the AfricaSan Lifetime Achievement Award to the
Cross family, who attended the ceremony.
The Award honours Cross, considered one of the most influential global activists in the water and sanitation sector.
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