Worldwide, 892 million people practice open defecation, most of whom live in rural areas of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is the most widely deployed approach to generate demand for, and use of sanitation facilities. CLTS relies on behavioral change and community self-enforcement to end open defecation.
Thanks to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as other smaller-scale initiatives throughout the world focused on improving access to water and sanitation, vast amounts of new data are being generated within the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector to measure progress against these goals. But are these data being used to inform decisions? And if not, how do we support the use of monitoring data in the decision-making process?
CONTEXT
Burkina Faso and Niger are the focus countries for USAID’s resilience agenda in the Sahel. USAID coordinates all of its programs with the Government of Burkina Faso, other donors—particularly G7 member countries under the New Alliance for Nutrition and Food Security—and regional organizations such as the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
APPROACH
CONTEXT
Benin is a stable and peaceful country with two decades of democratic governance. The country’s refurbished port, increased investments in infrastructure, and sustained economic growth rate of around 5.5 percent underscore its potential. However, the country continues to face many of the same challenges related to endemic poverty that affect countries in the region. Benin ranks 167 out of 187 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index, and more than one-third of the population lives in poverty.
APPROACH
The current report recapitulates the results from the project that was conducted by the Rwanda Young Water Professionals in partnership with RENGOF titled “Awareness rising on the use of constructed wetlands (CW) for wastewater treatment in Rwanda.” This project was in line with the Further Advancing the Blue Revolution Initiative (FABRI), initiated by AfWA and funded by USAID.
The finance gap remains a critical barrier to achieving universal sanitation and hygiene coverage across Africa. In recognition of this challenge, African countries recently reaffirmed their commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the Ngor Declaration on Sanitation and Hygiene at the joint AfricaSan5/Fecal Sludge Management5 Conference.
This event has ended, but you can check out the recording and write-up of the webinar. Or you can download presentations from the webinar (via Google Drive).
Non-revenue water (NRW) is a major problem for water utilities worldwide and especially in low and middle income countries (LAMIC). In light of this problem, the African Water Association and USAID’s Further Advancing the Blue Revolution Initiative (FABRI) launched a new four-year program to reduce NRW in 20 African water utilities in 16 countries in east, central, southern, and West Africa.
Around the world, only 71 percent of people use safely managed drinking water and only 39 percent use safely managed sanitation services. In sub-Saharan Africa, those numbers plummet to 24 percent for water, and data are insufficient to estimate sanitation use, according to Joint Monitoring Programme 2015 statistics.
This year’s Global Water and Development Report of Water and Sanitation Activities examines USAID programming through the lens of its new areas of focus and opportunity, takes a closer look at USAID’s support for partner countries on their journeys to self-reliance, and provides a country breakdown of WASH and water funding.
