WSSCC is taking a leading role for the next big regional sanitation conference, AfricaSan, which takes place 19-21 July 2011 in Kigali, Rwanda. WSSCC is supporting the preparatory work, convening and participating in a number of sessions, and linking with civil society and CLTS practitioners, among other activities.
The overall objective of AfricaSan 3 is to get Africa on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for sanitation. The meeting aims to attract the sanitation and hygiene leadership and expertise in Africa as well as the leading African and global agencies. AfricaSan 3 is expecting between 500-700 participants, drawn from up to 50 African countries (Ministers and high-level decision makers, government officials, sector specialists and civil society organizations), international agencies and delegates from the public or private sectors, civil society, external support agencies, academia and the media. Delegates from other regions (Latin America and Caribbean, South Asia, and East Asia and Pacific) will also be invited to share knowledge and lessons on successful sanitation and hygiene experiences.
WSSCC’s Executive Director Jon Lane is one of the keynote speakers on the opening day, 19 July. He’ll address the overall status of sanitation and hygiene in Africa. He leads a delegation of WSSCC staff, members and supported practitioners at the event.
WSSCC sessions
In Kigali, WSSCC will arrange three sessions and support two others and the Amcow AfricaSan Awards presentation. One session, titled “Reaching the Unserved : Equity and inclusion in sanitation and hygiene in Africa,” takes place from 10.30 to 13.30 on 20 July and focuses on topics which are increasingly part of WSSCC’s overall work agenda. The session will use an “equity lens” to examine the application of the human right to water and sanitation, with particular focus on monitoring for those who are typically left out of sanitation and hygiene development and programming.
Another session will be the official launch of GDP for GDP (Good Dignity Practices for Gross Domestic Product) campaign. This event takes place from 1730 to 1900 on the 20th and gives participants an opportunity to pick up campaign materials, and learn more about the background and theme for this latest edition of the WSSCC Global WASH Campaign.
The third event is focused on the Global Sanitation Fund. Entitled “Beyond Planning: Global Sanitation Fund implementation and results in Africa,” attendees will get the latest news, information and plans for the GSF in Africa and globally. The learning and sharing session takes place 19 July from 0830 until 1000 and is a prime moment to assess what has and what will be accomplished through this innovative grants financing mechanism.
WSSCC is also participating with a panelist in “A learning sanitation sector” session from 1000 to 1300 on 19 July and has helped design the session “Making what works work – changing behavior in sanitation and hygiene,” which takes place 1030 to 1330 on 20 July.
In addition, WSSCC is involved in the Water for People-led session entitled "Open for Business: The Private Sector’s Role in the Sustainable Sanitation Process." In particiular, WSSCC is leading the segment called "Encouraging sanitation entrepreneurs: advocacy to help businesses thrive."
Support for awards, CSO and CLTS activities
WSSCC is pleased to support the AMCOW AfricaSan Awards, which are dedicated to recognizing outstanding efforts and achievements in sanitation and hygiene in Africa which result in large-scale, sustainable behaviour changes and tangible impacts. The awards ceremony takes place from 1900 to 2100 on 20 July. The categories are Utilities Award, Local Government Award, and Media Award.
Also on the media front, WSSCC will help host a meeting of the “West Africa WASH Journalists Network” on 21 July. This regional network was launched with support from WSSCC and WaterAid in Bamako, Mali, in December 2010. It includes national networks of journalists from 13 West African countries. The network’s purpose is to amplify the voices of the poor, ensure an enhanced flow and quality of information on WASH, and raise awareness of WASH issues in West Africa through media-related work.
WSSCC is also participating in and supporting an 18 July pre-meeting of civil society organizations – as it did for SACOSAN earlier this year in Sri Lanka – including participants. On the same day, WSSCC is serving as a facilitator and resource for the Community-Led Total Sanitation meeting.
Link to the Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene
At the staff Secretariat level, WSSCC’s Archana Patkar has been a member in two important mechanisms involved in the conference: the AfricaSan Task Force and the AfricaSan Conference Outputs and Publications Sub-committee. Ms. Patkar, the WSSCC Networking and Knowledge Management Programme Manager, is also Task Force Chair for WSSCC’s own Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene, which takes place in Mumbai, India, from 9-14 October. That meeting will provide a platform for sharing knowledge and findings from AfricaSan as well as the other regional sanitation and hygiene conferences taking place in East Asia, South Asia and Latin America.
In Kigali, a WSSCC booth will have a wide range of materials available for conference attendees to pick up. These include the WSSCC Annual Report, GDP for GDP campaign materials, CLTS training guidelines and more.
AfricaSan Background
The Water and Sanitation Program, Africa (WSP-AF), the Department of Water Affairs of the Republic of South-Africa (DWAF), and WSSCC hosted the first African Conference on Sanitation and Hygiene (AfricaSan) in 2002. Its goal was to accelerate efforts to provide sanitation and enhance positive hygiene behaviours in Africa in order to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the primary objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.
Decision-makers from over 20 African countries issued a political statement at the end of the conference that influenced the adoption of a specific sanitation MDG target by the international community at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
The UN General Assembly designated 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. Capitalizing on this, the organizers of AfricaSan launched the second AfricaSan Conference (AfricaSan+5) in February 2008 in Durban, South Africa . Some 580 million people in Africa did not have access to improved sanitation in 2008; sub-Saharan Africa, particularly, bears a heavy burden of unimproved sanitation – 69% of the population.[1]
AfricaSan+5 brought together more than 600 delegates to address this crisis, and review progress made since AfricaSan 2002, vis-à-vis lessons learnt, actions taken by African countries, and those still required to strengthen African sanitation and hygiene promotion programmes. In the resulting eThekwini Declaration and AfricaSan Action Plan, ministers pledged to create separate budget lines for sanitation and hygiene in their respective countries, committing at least 0.5% of GDP. This was part of an action plan to put Africa “back on track” towards achieving the MDG targets on sanitation.