Sanitation Millennium Development Goals addressed at AfricaSan 3
2011/07/19-21

AfricaSan 3, the Third African Conference on Hygiene and Sanitation was held at the Serena Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda from 19-21 July 2011. The event was hosted by the Government of Rwanda and the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW). The overarching goal of AfricaSan 3 was to ensure that Africa gets on track to meet the Sanitation Millennium Development Goal (MDG) by 2015.

In his closing address Conference Director Piers Cross indicated that over 1000 people registered for the event with 900 delegates attending from 67 countries, which included representation from 42 African countries. AfricaSan 3 attracted experts, practitioners, officials and leading development and donor agencies providing a platform to share lessons learnt, drive the progress towards improved water and sanitation on the African continent and to strengthen leadership and advocacy for sanitation.

The opening plenary keynote address was delivered by the Prime Minister of Rwanda, Hon. Bernard Makuza, on behalf of His Excellency President Paul Kagame. He called on African countries to emulate the progress Rwanda has made in its drive towards the MDG’s. As one of only nine African countries to meet the MDG for sanitation, Rwanda’s Prime Minister highlighted the need for African leaders to prioritise sanitation within their countries’ agendas.

Rwanda’s leading example in addressing sanitation provided the platform for the African Launch of ‘Sustainable Sanitation: the five-year drive to 2015’. The campaign aims to mobilise Africa to contribute towards the Global Sustainable Sanitation Drive to 2015 which commits to redoubling efforts towards achieving the 2015 targets and to ending open defecation in Africa.

During AfricaSan 3 International Water Association (IWA), ICLEI Africa and UCLGA co-convened a session entitled ‘Urban Sanitation Service Delivery: Thinking about scale from the start*’. The session objective was to facilitate and promote dialogue and debate between practitioners on three aspects of Urban Sanitation Service Delivery namely: (1) Planning for scale, (2) ‘Foundations’ for ‘at-scale’ service delivery and (3) How to achieve scale.

To view the key discussion points from the session Urban Sanitation Service Delivery: Thinking about scale from the start, click here»

Piers Cross addressed delegates in the closing plenary of AfricaSan 3 on 21 July, highlighting key achievements and learning outcomes from the congress:

• Country Action Plans for 30 Countries were peer-reviewed
• Three quarters of the eThekwini Declaration targets showed good progress
• Fiscal resources to address sanitation challenges need to be increased
• Public sector leadership and financing is vital
• There is a need for Up-scaled Service Delivery
• Governments must stimulate and encourage sustainable sanitation
• Ecosan should be embedded at government level and extended to schools, government institutions etc.
• Local Government need to clarify their role and must be ‘in the driving seat’
• Local Government must encourage and stimulate the private sector
• Faecal sludge management needs to be incorporated within city systems
• Small Towns experiencing rapid growth need alternative management strategies
• Africa should focus on pro-poor initiatives
• Waste reuse is an important tool for Africa in addressing food security