IRC and WaterSan Perspective
April 09, 2014
The third Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) High Level Meeting will be held at the World Bank in Washington DC on 11 April 2014. It is a major milestone as developing and donor countries, and international organisations meet to discuss and commit to improved access to sanitation and water for all.
The Dutch based think-and-do tank IRC says water, sanitation and hygiene deserve the attention of the highest level policymakers around the world.
The SWA High Level Meetings are organized to address the issue that nearly 800 million people do not have access to clean drinking water, and over a third of the world’s population lives without adequate sanitation facilities.
Held once every two years, the SWA High Level Meetings bring together ministers of finance, water and sanitation from developing countries; ministers of development cooperation from donor countries such as the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States; high-level representatives from development banks such as the African Development Bank and the World Bank; and leading sanitation and water organisations.
As an active member since the SWA launch in 2009, leading water and sanitation organisation IRC has publicly committed to and wishes to be held accountable for five statements , one of them being to:
“Contribute to driving a global movement, in partnership with local and national governments and other organizations, that promotes the delivery of sustainable services to achieve safe water, sanitation and hygiene services for everyone, forever by 2030.”
In a news statement, IRC notes that it believes that today’s world water crisis is not just about scarcity or lack of hardware. Systems that should give people access break down, or provide sub-standard services on a massive scale across the world. IRC believes that strengthening the ability of governments to lead water and sanitation services is not only the best route to bring improvements to scale, but the only viable strategy in preparing for a post-aid era.
After the High Level meeting, IRC says it will continue to support its partner countries and other sector players in implementing its commitments. Through its engagement in SWA working groups, IRC actively contributes to lesson learning and sharing among the SWA partners and strengthens the sector’s knowledge base on successful approaches to achieve sustainable service delivery for everyone, forever.
