Prioritise Water And Sanitation For Health, Climate And TheEconomy

Participants from 57 countries gathered in Jakarta on the 18th of May for the Sector Ministers Meeting and urged prioritisation of water and sanitation issues worldwide.

The meeting was organised around the theme ‘Building Forward Better for Recovery and Resilience’ and was seen as a critical opportunity to link water and sanitation with other sectors with a view to the transversal integration of water and sanitation across government policies.

Although the Sanitation and Water for All partnership (SWA) hosts an annual Sector Ministers Meeting, the 2022 meeting included counterparts with responsibilities in the field of health, environment and economic affairs, and covered topics that included the COVID 19 pandemic, the climate crisis and the struggling global economy. These global events have conspired to undermine or even reverse decades of progress on sustainable development. The event was hosted by the government of Indonesia, SWA, and UNICEF.

In his opening address, SWA chair Patrick Moriarty told participants that this triple crisis is deeply intertwined with water and sanitation, making prioritisation of these issues vital. “Water and sanitation are indispensable for preventing public health emergencies, integral to supporting economic development, and imperative for making communities resilient to climate change” he said.  

Since the inception of SWA, partners have been working together through a jointly agreed SWA Framework  to enhance multistakeholder collaboration, as well as with a Mutual Accountability Mechanism  which tracks collective and individual progress around specific, measurable, relevant and timely actions in the field of water and sanitation .