Spurring the momentum towards achieving safely managed sanitation

Published on: 30/07/2024

Sanitation workers in Siem Reap, Cambodia, 2017. Credit: Erick Baetings / IRC.

WHO and UNICEF, in partnership with WaterAid and other development partners, organised the Global Summit on Sanitation to accelerate progress towards universal access to safely managed sanitation (SMS) from June 25-27. The Summit was held in Kathmandu, Nepal, where I had the opportunity to participate in various sessions.

Sanitation targets lagging

The rationale for holding the Summit was the recognition that progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets for sanitation is lagging. Achieving universal access to SMS will require a five-fold increase in the current rate of progress. Greater sector alignment is essential to shift towards SMS and to strengthen systems. With this in mind, the organisers set three specific objectives:

1. To promote greater alignment and shared understanding on what is needed to better support countries in making progress towards reaching universal access to SMS
2. To facilitate country dialogues on sharing approaches and experiences to implement the steps towards SMS in a coordinated way
3. To share technical knowledge and tools available in the sector to support the transition to SMS services.

The Summit was structured around several topics: 

• Sanitation governance, policies, and regulations
• Climate-resilient sanitation as a cross-cutting issue
• Financing for SMS
• Strengthening data systems
• Scaling up service delivery in urban and rural settings
• Strengthening human resources capacity, and
• Country-level work to identify activities and priorities

The session topics and designs clearly indicated a commitment within the sector to move away from project-based approaches towards strengthening national and local WASH systems. I was part of the panel that set the scene for the Summit (Session 2, Day 1). The need for systems strengthening was emphasised by Kamala KC (FCDO), Om Prasad Gautam (WaterAid UK), Antoinette Kome (SNV) and myself. Subsequent breakout sessions and group work focused on sustaining services. I participated in various group activities, including moderating a marketplace discussion on financing for SMS. Below are my two main takeaways from these discussions:

Take on board the key stakeholders in your effort to strengthen systems

While many organisations discuss systems strengthening, we must carefully ensure a shared understanding of its true meaning. My observation is that the phrase is now being widely used and accepted, but without a clear and consistent understanding, its adoption may not lead to meaningful progress. It appears that some organisations are advancing their systems strengthening approaches independently, potentially leaving government partners behind. In response, WHO and UNICEF are working on globally agreed core indicators and a common monitoring framework for systems strengthening. Achieving a common understanding among government stakeholders is crucial to prevent these efforts from being wasted.

The sector needs to prioritise area-wide sanitation in rural areas

Financial resources allocated to urban areas far exceed those available for rural areas. Much work has been done to develop examples and approaches for urban sanitation including integrating rural areas under urban sanitation frameworks. Still, attempts to extend urban faecal sludge management (FSM) services to neighbouring rural areas have led to increased transportation costs, jeopardising service viability. Exploring potential rural finance sources has yielded limited results, although microfinance offers promise for covering containment costs. Financing full-scale rural sanitation services remains challenging. 

There is clearly less attention for area-wide sanitation in rural areas. Simplifying service delivery, would make area-wide sanitation in rural areas a more attractive proposition. Simplified services tailored to rural areas can be promoted around appropriate technologies such as twin pit latrines, composting toilets, and urine-diversion dry toilets. These technologies can substantially simplify and shorten the sanitation service chain but they must be adapted to local geographic and social conditions to ensure acceptance and effectiveness.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, I love to consider the Global Summit on Sanitation as a spur to gain momentum in achieving SMS. The question is, how we can make the spirit of the Summit contagious. As IRC, we will continue identifying weaker system building blocks and strengthen them. We also feel the need to develop a common and consistent understanding of systems strengthening. We must improve our communication on systems strengthening especially with those stakeholders we aren't reaching at the moment.

Acknowledgements: This blog was reviewed by Angela Huston, edited by Cor Dietvorst and copy-edited by Tettje van Daalen.