Liberia: Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene ends
…As Sanitation Considered Economic Benefit – By: Augustine N. Myers, returning from India – The much talked about Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene in Mumbai, India has come and ended. It was indeed an exciting Meeting with exclusive focus on one of the world’s crucial but overlooked issues, “sanitation”. It is estimated that about 2.6 billion people around the world lack access to adequate sanitation.
WSSCC Executive Director, Jon Lane making closing remarks
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there will be 2.7 billion people without sanitation, if the current trend continues.
Participants at the close of the first Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene in Mumbai, India
The Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene organized by the Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), was indeed a leading platform to discuss and advance critical sanitation and hygiene issues affecting the lives of billions of people the world over.
It is said that improved sanitation has positive impacts on economic growth and poverty reduction, thereby providing a clear indication that without improving sanitation, none of the other Millennium Development Goals, to which the world has committed itself, will be achieved.
According to a recent WHO study, every dollar spent on improving sanitation generates an average economic benefit of seven United States dollars.
Four of the six delegates from Liberia (L-R) Samson Neese-Executive Officer of the Emergency Rehabilitation Service, Fregina Bettie of the Public Works Ministry, Gus N. Myers-Chairman of the WASH Reporters & Editors Network of Liberia, and John Junkon-Chairman of the Liberia NGOs Network
Due to the importance of better sanitation and how it contributes to economic benefits, the Executive Director of the Water Supply & Sanitation, Jon Lane has called for sanitation’s place to be maintained amid the glamour of other issues.
According to Mr. Lane, WSSCC is emphasizing one of the key messages in particular, namely that sanitation generates economic benefits. Ultimately, he said their professional concerns about health or the environment, the economic arguments are the most powerful both with householders themselves and with political leaders.
Speaking last Thursday at the closing plenary of the Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene in Mumbai, India, the WSSCC Executive Director said their work on sanitation needs to take several factors into account that politicians fundamentally want to serve their people, and that politicians make new policies if they are convinced by the arguments of people advocating for them.
He said, looking to the future, he believes the major factors affecting progress on sanitation will include demographic changes including increased urbanization, the global economic downturn, environmental issues including climate change and natural disasters, changing political priorities, technological developments including advances in information technology, and a global economic and political power shift towards South and East Asia. According to him, all of the factors present them both problems and opportunities.
Media Practitioners from African and Asian Countries
Mr. Lane said their task is to ensure that sanitation is also prioritized, as water will become more prominent in political debates around the world. According to him, they are making progress but there is a long way to go until sanitation becomes as prominent, as vaccination is prioritized by their colleagues at the GAVI Alliance and recently did a great job to request finance of $3 billion and receive $4 billion, nothing that such is the sort of scale they should aim for.
According to the WSSCC Executive Director, they are starting to look beyond the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to a future target which must be accessible, safe, affordable sanitation for all, which universal goal ties in well with the recently-declared human right to sanitation, and with the concepts of equity and inclusion applied to sanitation.
He recounted that there are still some tough problems, giving an example that the people who lack sanitation are those with no political voice, that peoples’ access to improved sanitation has to be sustained indefinitely, and that the sanitation problems of urban slums are growing rapidly.
(L-R) Chuchu Selmah of WaterAid Liberia and Gus N. Myers of WASH R&E Network
He said they need to work harder to persuade others including politicians, the media, and thought leaders that sanitation is important to them, nothing that it is no use just talking among themselves as sanitation professionals.
Mr. Lane further pointed out that they have a big task ahead of them to achieve sanitation for everybody, but he believes they can do it, especially through four listed points as quoted:
First, hard work. Doing sanitation well is difficult, combining social sciences, political, institutional and technical work. It is slow steady work, house by house, community by community. There is no substitute for hard work.
Secondly, plain speaking. We must speak out about the subject using plain language that everybody can understand. This will bring sanitation and toilets and shit into regular professional and policy dialogue.
Prince Kreplah of the Liberia CSOs WASH Working Group, at the Mumbai Forum
Thirdly, strong leadership: from Mahatma Gandhi in 1925 saying that sanitation is more important than independence to the UN Secretary-General this year saying “It is time to put sanitation and access to proper toilets at the centre of our development discussions” we need strong direction from global leaders.
Fourthly, thinking big. We have talked a lot about working at scale. I suggest that we should be thinking at the scale of 2.5 billion people. To do this, it is more important to grow the ideas and concepts that work than to grow our organizations. Great ideas spread like viruses, so we want this virus to become a pandemic. Unquote.
Mr. Lane added within that overall view forward, WSSCC has studied its own characteristics and those of other Organizations working on water, sanitation and hygiene and its relationships with them. He said, there are a number of fine organizations that have goals which are similar to WSSCC.
According to him, the whole point of WSSCC’s work is to collaborate, not compete, with other comparable Organizations, noting that WSSCC sees itself as one player in collective global leadership on sanitation.
Field visit to the Goonj Recycled Used Clothing Center, which is enhancing sanitation through the provision of clothing to thousands of less-fortunate Indians
He further pointed out that during the next few years, WSSCC’s members and staff will continue to concentrate their energies and resources on sanitation and hygiene; work in long-term development (not disaster relief); continue doing much of their work in rural areas while making specific efforts to become more involved in urban work; emphasize commitment to equity for poor and neglected people; and will ensure that their global, regional and national level work are fully integrated with each other.
He disclosed that WSSCC will prioritize countries that have high sanitation and hygiene needs and in which it can achieve a useful impact. According to him, all will lead to four main outcomes: 1).Through the financial support of the Global Sanitation Fund, their advocacy, knowledge sharing, will help millions of people to access and use improved sanitation. 2).They will give special attention to people who are normally left behind: the poor, marginalized and neglected individuals and groups in society. 3).They will encourage hundreds more people and organizations to become involved in sanitation and hygiene. And 4).They will help thousands of people to learn new knowledge and skills and hence do their work on sanitation better.
The WSSCC Executive Director has meanwhile commanded participants for ensuring the success of the first Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene, stressing that the Conference is part of their mission to transform sanitation from a minor, neglected, charitable development sector into a major, thriving area of human economic activity.
He at the same time said they have a role to play, including NGO workers, ministers, academics, civil servants, media professionals, donors, young people, and the business community, describing all as leaders in the great movement on sanitation.
According to him, they were at the Forum because ever one wants to end open defecation, achieve sanitation and water for all, and make the world a wealthier, healthier and cleaner place for the children and those unborn.
He urged the participants to continue their good work in sanitation and hygiene.
The week-long Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene in Mumbai, India brought together hundreds of participants from Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States. Participants primarily came from sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia and Eastern Asia.
The Forum drew in lessens from the impressive sanitation accomplishments in Asia and offered instructive and inspirational field visits to key programmes in India’s Maharashtra State, which is considered a leader in the region in innovative service delivery at scale.
The first Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene concluded with the introduction of a new Medium-Term Strategic Plan by the Water, Sanitation & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) for 2012-2016.
According to the Strategic Plan, WSSCC will for the next few years concentrate its energy and resources on sanitation and hygiene, work in long-term development (not disaster) relief, continue doing much of its work in rural areas while making specific efforts to become more involved in urban work, emphasize its commitment to equity for poor and neglected people, and ensure that its global, regional and national level work are fully integrated with each other.
The WSSCC Strategic Plan also seeks to prioritize Countries that have high sanitation and hygiene needs and in which it can achieve a useful impact.
The Countries include Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone, Mali, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Senegal, and Nigeria, among others.
