What is Sanitation and Water for All?

Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) is a global partnership of governments, donors, civil society and multilateral organisations. Its aim is to ensure that all people have access to basic sanitation and safe drinking water. It is particularly concerned with those countries where the needs are greatest, with an immediate focus on achieving the Millennium Development Goals in the most off-track countries. To achieve this, Sanitation and Water for All aims to:

• Increase political prioritisation for sustainable sanitation and drinking water
• Strengthen strong national government-led planning processes and capacity to guide development and implementation of sustainable sanitation and drinking water services 
• Promote effective decision making by providing detailed information and evidence on sanitation and drinking water and strengthen mutual accountability of governments and development partners.

SWA aims to address critical barriers to achieving universal and sustainable sanitation and drinking water for everyone. These barriers include insufficient political prioritisation, weak sector capacity to develop and implement effective plans and strategies, and uncoordinated and inadequate investments. SWA approaches to address these barriers include:

• Host a biannual High Level Meeting (HLM) of global decision-makers to focus on key water and sanitation issues and provide a platform for improving mutual accountability for delivery on sector commitments
• Improve information on the sector to assist evidence-based decision making, such as in the annual UN-Water GLAAS Report
• Provide additional support to developing countries processes through technical assistance, better coordination, ideas and where appropriate with catalytic support.
• In response to overcoming the weaknesses in sector planning processes SWA developed the National Planning for Results Initiative (NPRI) to support “fragile states”.

For more information see brochure Sanitation and Water for All (Sept 2012).

Source: www.sanitationandwaterforall.org