3rd African Implementation and Partnership Conference
The African Union Commission (AUC) and the Secretariat of AMCOW (AMCOW-Sec) are mandated to implement policy initiatives to actualise both the African Union Vision of:
“an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena”; and,
the Africa Water Vision 2025 of:
“an Africa where there is an equitable and sustainable use and management of water resources for poverty alleviation, socio-economic development, regional cooperation and the environment”.
The 11th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU Assembly), in July 2008, culminated in the seminal Sharm el-Sheikh Declaration [Assembly/AU/ Decl.1 (XI)] on water. The Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU HoSG) undertook the Sharm el-Sheikh Commitments for Accelerating the Achievement of Water and Sanitation Goals in Africa. The backdrop to the Sharm el-Sheikh commitments is provided by the targets of the Africa Water Vision 2025 (AWV 2025).
Thus, in 2000, the continent envisioned an Africa where there is equitable and sustainable utilisation of our water resources for socio-economic development, poverty alleviation, regional cooperation and the environment by 2025. A key lesson from efforts to actualise this Vision is the urgent need to inject new approaches into strategies to attract commensurate financial resources to the sector.
A paradigm shift is required to highlight the economic contribution of water to all productive sectors, including livelihoods improvement; regional trade and integration; peace and security. Similarly, the potential of the sanitation economy to contribute to ensuring the availability of safe water and basic sanitation and hygiene services for all to reduce the overall disease burden and enhance national and local-level pandemic preparedness capabilities and maintaining functional ecosystems. The principles of valuing water and articulation of the sanitation economy hold promise for raising the profile of water and sanitation in national systems for development planning and public investment. Mobilising the buy-in of our political leadership will translate that promise into reality
Progress reported on actualising the Africa Water Vision 2025
Member States’ reported progress against the targets of the Africa Water Vision 2025 (AWV 2025), and related commitments including the SDGs, indicates that we are off track to actualise the Vision. In particular, the rate of growth in services provision is outstripped by rapid population growth and urbanisation and exacerbated by the impacts of climate change and climate variability. Incommensurate public funding and investments to the sector have been identified as a fundamental factor underlying the fast-fading aspiration of actualising the Africa Water Vision by 2025.
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