Hello Kitch

I noticed an updated page on the AfricaSan website www.africasan.com/pages/43/proceedings-of-africasan-4 which has several PDF files for downloading. It contains some presentations and also rapporteur notes. It seems to me there is a lot of valuable policy material there but it needs to be pulled together into something a little more conclusive. In its present form it may become forgotten only to be repeated in future AfricaSan meetings. Is there capacity in your BMGF project to assign to a policy writer/consultant the task of providing a syntheses of the messages generated during this AfricaSan meeting?

In addition I am wondering if there is a compilation of all the presentations from the meeting? SuSanA would be interested in assisting in such a compilation if we can get access to the presentations.

Looking forward to the follow-up.

Regards

Dear all,

I would like to tell you a bit about a grant that I am leading here at AMCOW and which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:

Title of grant: Support to AMCOW capacity to influence sanitation policy

• Name of lead organization: African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW)
• Primary contact at lead organization: Kitchinme Bawa, Sanitation and Hygiene Focal Point
• Grantee location: Abuja, Nigeria
• Developing country where the project takes place: Project implementation is Pan African with focus on policy in Burundi, Chad, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe (the project covers the entire continent. E.g. AfricaSan covers everywhere including North Africa).
• Start and end date: November 2012 – November 2015 (the project has a no cost extension up to December 2016).
• Grant type: Other
• Grant size in USD: $ 1,979,472 (as per BMGF grant database: www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quic...s/2012/10/OPP1029716)

Short description of the project:

The project was set up to achieve the following tasks:

• Provide technical guidance and training to four fragile states – Burundi, Chad, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe - (the World Bank definition of ‘fragile situation’ is used to identify fragile states) to develop and adopt quality national sanitation and hygiene policies and plans with real potential for impact. The Country Status Overview reports and the AfricaSan Traffic Lights give an indication of the status of countries, including the issues/obstacles to achieving the MDGs and the eThekwini commitments. The 2011 Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Reports will be used as the baseline. Key sector decision makers in the project countries will be given training and facilitation on, among other skills, the use of on-site sanitation. They will be facilitated to interact with peers in countries that registered significant success under similar governance context, such as Rwanda.
• Hold the AfricaSan4 conference and awards as a mechanism for tracking progress, refining targets, building leadership, enabling peer support amongst countries and advocacy for implementation of the AfricaSan Action Plan that is targeted at achievement of the eThekwini commitments.
• Facilitate development of harmonized tools (indicators, standards and methods) for monitoring sanitation and hygiene in Africa, and train countries to use these tools in reporting to the AU. The project will also advocate for increased support for sanitation and hygiene initiatives in low performance countries identified through the country reports. The 3rd objective will contribute to an AMCOW initiative to establish a pan Africa mechanism for reporting to the AU Heads of States Summit on progress in fulfillment of the 2008 Sharm-el-Sheikh commitments.

Goal(s):

The project supports AMCOW capacity to be the primary source of guidance and information on sanitation and hygiene policy formulation and implementation for African countries, leading to improved sanitation services, health, poverty reduction and higher national productivity.


Objectives:

To support four fragile countries to achieve wider implementation of the eThekwini Commitments and get back on track for the achievements of the MDGs (Burundi, Chad, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe); To support AMCOW initiatives on sanitation and hygiene advocacy through the conduct of AfricaSan 4 Conference (May 2015 in Senegal), AfricaSan Awards and enhanced access to sanitation and hygiene information and knowledge management; and To support the pan African mechanism for Water and Sanitation M&E and Reporting to the African Union Summit on Sharm El Sheikh Commitments.


Research or implementation partners:

A large number of independent consultants, the focal countries, AfricaSan International Task Force (made up of agencies working on sanitation in the continent.


Links, further readings – results to date:

About AMCOW's work in general see: www.africasan.com; www.amcow-online.com

Current state of affairs:

• AfricaSan has been successfully organized (May 2015 in Senegal. See www.africasan.com; some presentations are available on the SuSanA website: www.susana.org/en/resources/conference-m...2015/439-africasan-4). See also some feedback about the event here on the SuSanA discussion forum: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/156-co...-events-and-feedback
• The Pan African M&E on sanitation and hygiene is being finalised and Policy development work is ongoing in Zimbabwe.
• Some policy review is happening in Burundi and Chad.
• Discussions are ongoing in Sierra Leone on next set of actions.

Biggest successes so far:

The conduct of the AfricaSan 4 conference and the Ministerial statement (The N’gor declarations on Sanitation and Hygiene, see www.susana.org/en/resources/library/details/2260) will serve as the template for sanitation and hygiene implementation for the next 15 years and for the attainment of the sanitation aspect of the SDGs goal 6.


Main challenges / frustration:

The political instability in some countries of Africa is seriously working against progress of work. The Central African Republic was initially part of the project for sanitation policy formulation, but had to be dropped due to the crisis. Work had to be suspended in Burundi due to the political crisis and is just about to be resumed now. Slow response of country teams. This is related to their fragile nature of the countries which is evident in the lack of strong systems and structures.


Regards,
Kitch


Kitchinme Bawa Gotau
Sanitation Focal Point, (Point Focal D’Assainissment et L’hygiene)
African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW), (Conseil Des Ministres Africains Charges De L’eau).
11 T.Y. Danjuma, Asokoro, Abuja, Nigeria.
skype: kitchinme.bawa; twitter: @keachbauer
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.