SWA(Sanitation and Water for All): Unprecedented attendance at the 2014 HLM to address access to water and sanitation, bolster growth and reduce inequalities
[Excerpt]
12 Apr, 2014
At the 2014 SWA High Level Meeting (HLM), ministers for finance, water, sanitation and development cooperation from over 40 developing countries tabled over 250 individual commitments designed to speed up access for the 2.5 billion people lacking improved sanitation and the 748 million people without improved drinking water.

On Friday, 11 April, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, World Bank Group President Dr. Jim Yong Kim and SWA Chair John Kufuor led the third biennial HLM, held at the World Bank in Washington DC. They noted the vast health, economic, social and environmental consequences of poor water, sanitation and hygiene, and called their meeting an important step forward.

“At the beginning of this meeting, I challenged the ministers in this room to make concrete and practical commitments,” said Kufuor, the former president of Ghana. “I am now more confident than ever, that our name – Sanitation and Water for All – will become our achievement.”

The SWA partnership is a global coalition of 90 developing country governments, donors, civil society organizations and other partners. It aims to catalyse political leadership and action, improve accountability and use scarce resources more effectively.

The meeting yielded 265 new commitments from over 40 countries. Broadly speaking, the commitments aim to increase the amount and improve the use of financial resources, reduce inequality in access, build capacity of institutions charged with delivering water and sanitation services, and coordinate resources more effectively, both from governments and external aid.

Some 1,400 children die each day from preventable diarrhea diseases linked to a lack of safe water, adequate sanitation and hygiene, and countries lose out on 260 billions of dollars of economic growth. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of women and girls, disabled persons, pastoralists and other poor and marginalized communities are disproportionally affected without services…

WHO: Special report for the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) High-Level Meeting (HLM)
Investing in water and sanitation: Increasing access, reducing inequalities
The objective of the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) is to monitor the inputs required to extend and sustain water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems and services. This third UN-Water GLAAS report will present data received from developing countries, covering all the Millennium Development Goal regions, and from external support agencies.

Download the Special Report for the Sanitation and Water for All High-Level Meeting
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