Eastern, Southern Africa Leadership Summit on WASH underway

Addis Ababa, November 14, 2023 (FBC) – The Eastern and Southern Africa Leadership Summit on WASH, hosted by the World Bank and Ministry of Finance kicked off in Addis Ababa today.

The Eastern and Southern Africa WASH Leadership Summit has brought together ministers of finance and water, development partners and private sector leaders for in-depth discussions about advancing systems change as a pathway to universal WASH access.

The two-day event, according to ENA, primarily centers around five strategic actions of the systems change approach, address sector-level governance bottlenecks, and re-align sector-wide incentives.

While the world is progressing towards SDG 6, Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where  the number of people without access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is increasing.

In the last two decades, 37 million more people in Sub-Saharan Africa have been without basic water supply, and 247 million more are without basic sanitation.

A significant majority of people without access are living in Eastern and Southern Africa, and despite all efforts being made these gaps are growing every passing year.

The implications of limited access to basic WASH, and a strategy to move away from business as usual in the sector were discussed at previous events such as the United Nations Water Conference in March 2023 and the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings in April 2023.

During these high-level events, the African ministers of water and finance have embraced a strategy of “Systems Change” as a way to universal WASH access and committed to establishing and monitoring regional and country platforms to track progress.