Global partnership pledges universal access to water and sanitation

The Sanitation and Water for All partnership (SWA), further strengthens its support to countries towards realizing the sustainable development goal (SDG) six of achieving universal access to water and sanitation, said Kevin Rudd, newly-appointed Chair of SWA and former Prime Minister of Australia.

The pledge was made at a two-day high-level meeting of ministers in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa to deliberate on ways of achieving targets on universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene as called for in the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In his Chair of SWA, Rudd told Xinhua Wednesday that his organization supports countries in Africa, Asia, and others that the current situation is changed for better in water and sanitation services and also towards the implementation of sustainable development goal number six.

In his remarks at the opening of the high-level meeting, Rudd said the SDGs demand greater coordination and new modalities of finance.

"The Sustainable Development Goals demand both greater coordination and new modalities of finance. We need more money, and smarter ways to use the money we have," said Rudd.

He said SWA provides supports in political leadership; on ways of making sure the best technologies are properly disseminated; on how better changes are achieved; and on how best to secure sustainable financing to implement water and sanitation plans.

Rudd stated that significant successes have been achieved in Ethiopia and other African countries as huge progress witnessed on availability of clean drinking water and improved sanitation services.

SWA partnership works with countries having ministers and civil societies also with multilateral agencies, the World Bank, UNICEF, and other UN agencies, research institutions, community based organizations that countries get the best support possible to make SDG six a reality.

SWA has over 100 partners, mostly governments, and works as a platform for encouraging and coordinating political dialogue and action around water, sanitation and hygiene issues.

The high-level meeting in Addis Ababa was expected to deliberate on actions to be taken to develop achievable sustainable development goals (SDGs) strategies.

It was also to dwell upon ways of strengthening national institutions and collaboration on national programs as well as discuss issues related to available resources for countries on planning and implementing their strategies.

According to SWA, its meeting in 2014 attracted 21 ministers of finance and 35 ministers responsible for water and sanitation, who deliberated on ways of addressing issues such as lack of funding, poor allocation of funding, human capacity building, shortfalls in monitoring and use of data for informed decision making, among others. Endit