BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE
WSA will lead
the country level process in Ghana and 19 other African countries where they have
field staff, while WHO, would support the process through its own country
offices in 10 more countries, to make the total 30.
This was disclosed at a Ghana Process Briefing and launch of the 2012 UN-Water GLASS report in Accra September 12, 2013.
To assist
facilitate the UN-Water Global Assessment and Analysis of Sanitation and
Drinking Water (GLAAS)
implementation and country level consultations in Africa, the World Health
Organisation (WHO), is working closely with the Pan African Inter-governmental
Agency, Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA).
This was disclosed at a Ghana Process Briefing and launch of the 2012 UN-Water GLASS report in Accra September 12, 2013.
GLASS is a UN-Water initiative that collates a
comprehensive overview of data aimed at determining factors that are
constraining or enabling progress towards meeting the MDG target for sanitation
and drinking-water.
It monitors global inputs and self-assessed national capacities
to deliver sanitation and drinking-water services and has a
major
objective of identifying drivers and bottlenecks to progress towards
MDG/national targets and to serve as a repository of global data for
decision-makers such as Sanitation and Water for All.
In her presentation at the Ghana briefing, Mrs Destina Samani, Country
Representative for WSA in Ghana, said the aim of the initiative, is to implement GLAAS 2014 in 30 countries in
the African Region.
“Another opportunity is here for us to benchmark self-reported data, by
working together on developing indicators and standards more relevant to our
country,” she acknowledged.
Outlining the processes to be employed in the 2014 GLASS implementation,
she enumerated that it would include notification of government to provide
leadership, nomination of a national focal person, face to face discussions with
relevant agencies and questionnaire distribution
through a focal person to relevant key agencies.
Further, it would entail completion of a draft questionnaire, completion
of final data collection, a national validation workshop, submission
of final completed questionnaire to sector minister for approval and then
submission to WHO headquarters through WSA’s headquarters in Ouagadougou.
The GLAAS 2012 101 page report titled: “The Challenge of Extending and
Sustaining Services” included 74 developing countries and all major donors.
The 2012 report highlights low capacity of many
governments to spend the limited resources allocated to water, sanitation and hygiene
(WASH); the
challenge
of extending and sustaining coverage; lack of focus on managing WASH assets;
and re-emphasises lack of robust data, particularly on financial flows to WASH.
FACTS
•
The GLAAS initiative is implemented by the World
Health Organisation (WHO).
•
A GLAAS report is produced every 2 years by WHO and
so provides a regular (biennial) global update, complementing the Joint
Monitoring Platform (JMP).
•
First assessment report was released in 2010, the
second in 2012 and the next assessment will be released in 2014.
•
GLAAS is an instrument used by Sanitation and Water
for All (SWA) to provide evidence for the
biennial High Level Meetings (HLMs) and help countries prepare their WASH
country profiles for the HLM
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