FAN Member Lajana Manandhar reports on the SWA meeting in Washington DC

On 20 April 2012, hundreds of delegates from all over the world are gathering in Washington DC to take part in the ‘Sanitation and Water for All – high level meeting’.

Pictured from left to right: Yakub Hussain (FANSA, Bangladesh), Rudy Amega-Etego (ANEW & CEO of the Foundation for Grassroots Initiatives in Africa) and Lajana Manandhar (FANSA, Nepal) at the SWA HLM in Washington DC. 

Approximately 40 developing countries are voicing their concerns in the meeting alongside donor countries, foundation and development banks (for more details visit the SWA website). Today concrete commitments will be made to ensure adequate water and sanitation facilities are made available for the world's poorest countries and communities.

The Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) High Level Meeting (HLM) will bring together Ministers of Finance from developing countries, Ministers of Development Cooperation from donor countries and high-level representatives from development banks and other donor institutions. The main aim of the meeting is to address the lack of priority given to sanitation and water as a development intervention, the poor targeting of aid in the sector, and the need for robust planning and institutions. FAN member Lajana Manandhar from Nepal, gave a speech at the beginning of the meeting on the urgency of tackling the water and sanitation crisis. She described how women and girls are the hardest hit (with women bearing 70 percent of the burden of collecting water) and introduced a short film on the human costs of dirty water and poor sanitation.

She called on Ministers to include the following commitments from the End Water Poverty briefing:

• Significantly more and better funding for water, sanitation and  hygiene, targeted at the most vulnerable communities, to achieve universal access by 2020.

• The development and implementation of viable national plans for water and sanitation, including the recognition and operationalisation of the human right to water and sanitation.

• Ensuring equity and sustainability is at the heart of all approaches so that WASH services are accessible to all including the most vulnerable communities and specifically for women and girls.

Many FAN partners are also attending including Sue Yardley, Tear Fund, Rolien Sasse, Simavi, John Oldfield, Wash Advocates, Jussica Bakker, Simavi, Fleur Anderson (EWP) and Sarah Blakemore (EWP).

Before the meeting, Lajana Manandhar shared some reflections of the preparatory processes in Washington DC held on 19th April:

"We talked about our expected roles over the following days - how we would be participating, what we want to do, etc…We had an opportunity to read the draft statement by ministers to be presented at the sanitation and water for all high level meeting on 20th April and discussed some shortcomings on the draft statement."

 
“In the pre meeting the CSO members went through the statement and felt that it was a little vague given that the statement had been in circulation 2- 3 months ahead for Ministers to provide their feedback”.

“We felt that a strong monitoring mechanism needed to be put in place in order to measure the achievements and outcomes – which is currently missing. It is important that Ministers make valid commitments within a structured time frame.  We recognize that the situation varies in different countries and this is possibly reflected in the broad statement.  

“I am excited to present our voices today in the ministerial opening session and hope it goes well.”

For updates online visit us at:

1.      www.facebook.com/fansouthasia

2.      www.endwaterpoverty.blogspot.co.uk/?dm_i=J72,RT6K,4NXHYQ,2977O,1

For further reading visit us at:
1. www.sanitationandwaterforall.org/highlevelmeeting2012.html
2. www.sanitationandwaterforall.org/PastHighLevelMeetings.html
3. www.endwaterpoverty.org/news__events/296.asp
4. www.sanitationandwaterforall.org/News1.html