AfricaSan 3 ends in Rwanda

For the past three days, Ministers and Heads of Delegations responsible for sanitation and hygiene from across Africa, together with senior civil servants, local government officials, professionals from sector institutions, academia, civil society, and development partners, have been meeting in the capital of Rwanda, Kigali.

The reason is simple; they convened for the third Africa Conference on Sanitation and Hygiene, AfricaSan 3, which began on July 19 and ends today, July 21, 2011.

The Rwandan conference was to allow participants to present and exchange knowledge and strategies to overcome bottlenecks to large scale sanitation and hygiene programmes, strengthen the evidence base for scaling up sanitation and hygiene programmes in Africa, and kick-start the drive to get Africa back on track to meet the sanitation MDG and achieve sustainable universal coverage.

Ghana’s 12-member delegation, to the conference is led by the Deputy Minister for Local government and Rural Development, Aquinas Quansah, and also includes the Northern Regional Minister, Moses Bukari Mabengba, the top brass of the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate, Community Water and Sanitation Agency, (CWSA), UNICEF, Dr. Afia Zakiya, Country Representative of WaterAid in Ghana and other CSOs in the water and sanitation and hygiene promotion (WASH) sector.

The e-Thekwini Traffic light report, (which gives a glance at sanitation and hygiene in Africa and tracks progress towards the commitments) shows that Ghana has made discernible progress on some fronts, though they have not been able to take Ghana on track to meeting the 54% sanitation MDG mark it has targeted.

Since the last sanitation conference in Durban, South Africa in February 2008 though, Ghana has been able to put some structures and policies in place towards sanitation emancipation.

These are; a National Sanitation Policy, the Environmental Sanitation Policy (Revised 2010), one national plan to meet the MDG sanitation target while adequate profile has been given to sanitation in the PRSP, a strategic plan.

Also, a principal accountable institution has been put in place, a Coordinating body and progress has been made on gender aspects in institutional sanitation progress.

Ironically though, at the same time, Ghana has made less progress in ensuring the following e-Thekwini commitments are met, which are, a specific public sector budget line for sanitation, a 0.5% GDP allocation to sanitation and an effective monitoring and evaluation system for sanitation.

Prior to departure for the conference, the leader of Ghana’s government delegation to AfricaSan 3, Aquinas Quansah said, “We are going to make the case of Ghana… how far we have been able to go with sanitation issues, sell our achievements and learn best practices from other countries on how to scale up sanitation and hygiene coverage in Ghana.” The funding challenges, he added, will need to be addressed quickly for Ghana to bring herself out of the lower rungs of the African sanitation ladder.

Other members of the Ghanaian delegation were optimistic about Ghana’s preparedness to turn the tides and tackle the sanitation challenges head-on.

Demedeme Naa Lenason, Director at the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, for his part, said “With the investment plan of about US$ 914 million that we have put in place, ( which is being considered by Cabinet), once it is approved, investment in the sector will hit the 0.5 % of GDP commitment from government.’

In Ghana, available statistics indicate that more than four million people still defecate in open drains, water bodies and or fields.

According to the Ghana Statistical Service Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) Report (2006), the national average for open defecation in all the ten regions is 24 per cent, but the practice is most widespread in the Upper East Region with 82 percent, Upper West Region with about 79 percent and then the Northern Region with about 73 percent.

AfricaSan 2, ended two years ago with the signing of the e-Thekwini Declaration by ministers, which among others, carried a pledge by the ministers to create separate budget lines for sanitation and hygiene in their countries and to commit at least 0.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The eThekwini Declaration also recognised that approximately 589 million people or more than 60% of Africa’s population do not have access to safe sanitation, and pledged to raise the profile of sanitation and hygiene on the continent, track the implementation of the e-Thekwini Declaration, establish one national plan for accelerating progress to meet national sanitation goals and the MDGs by 2015 and establish one coordinating body with specific responsibility for sanitation and hygiene, using effective and sustainable approaches which make specific impact upon the poor, women, children, youth and the un-served.

By Edmund Smith-Asante