By Edmund
Smith-Asante, ACCRA
Some of the participants at the Sanitation Advocacy Workshop |
Experts
from seven West African countries are meeting in Accra to discuss the problems
of sanitation advocacy in the region and learn how best to use advocacy to
influence better investment in sanitation.
In an
interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Tanko Azzika, Coordinator of the WaterAid
Regional Learning Centre and Citizen Engagement, said sanitation was not only a
problem in West Africa.
“That is
why we want to see how best we can use advocacy to influence better investment
in sanitation by governments and other stakeholders to speed up our game in
delivering sanitation services to the poor,” he said.
He noted
that all countries in the sub region would not achieve the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) target because they had performed very poorly in
sanitation coverage. The coordinator also explained that the workshop was to
afford the participating countries and partners, where WaterAid operated, the
opportunity to learn from each other.
According
to Mr Azzika, at the close of the workshop, there would be an action plan on
carrying forward the sanitation agenda for all the participating countries for
the next three years.
In all,
23 participants from the seven countries and partners, including civil society
and government agencies in the water and sanitation sector participated in the
workshop.
Sanitation headache
The head
of Policy and Partnership, WaterAid Ghana, Mr Musah Ibrahim, said his
organisation was ready to work with national and local governments to tackle
the “hydra-headedness” of sanitation across West Africa.
“Both
basic toilets and solid waste management are threatening public health outcomes
and livelihoods; the need to tackle them is urgent. A clear example of poor
sanitation is the 2014 cholera which claimed lives. Governments in the West
Africa sub-region must take action now,” he stated.
Mrs
Isabelle Barry, head of Policy, WaterAid Burkina Faso, expressed satisfaction
with deliberations at the meeting as they offered her the opportunity to learn
from the experiences of other WaterAid countries.
The
Advocacy and Partnership Manager, WaterAid Nigeria, Mr Saheed Mustafa, said,
“It is an opportunity for us WaterAid partners to determine collectively
what our focus should be as an organisation in terms of ensuring that we move
sanitation from the access level it is right now to the access level we want it
to be.”
This story was first published by
the Daily Graphic on April 23, 2015
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