Kathmandu, Nepal - Delegates from more than 20 countries and stakeholder organizations gathered in Kathmandu from 25–27 June 2024 for a Global Sanitation Summit organized by UNICEF, WHO and WaterAid.
The Summit marks a critical step for redoubled efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal target 6.2 on safely managed sanitation[1], which is currently off track for the 2030 deadline.
According to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme on Water Supply and Sanitation, 3.4 billion people – or 2 in 5 – do not have safely managed sanitation, impacting their health, dignity and development, and contributing to some 1.4 million preventable deaths annually.
To meet the SDG target will require a five-fold increase in progress for safely managed sanitation, a reality not lost upon Member States, UN and multilateral agencies, international and national nongovernmental organizations, and others.
WHO has been engaged in recent and current efforts to accelerate progress through sector-wide, collaborative efforts such as the SDG 6 Global acceleration framework and the UN System-wide strategy for water and sanitation. These initiatives lay a strong foundation, yet the Summit highlighted the urgent need for sector alignment and coordination to advance safely managed sanitation and overall water, sanitation and hygiene system strengthening.
WHO and UNICEF, as key collaborators, are more aligned than ever on needed efforts through the UNICEF Game plan to reach safely managed sanitation 2022–2030, the WHO Guidelines for sanitation and health and the Sanitation safety planning approach. Together with other partners, the two organizations have also spearheaded efforts to focus on climate resilient sanitation through a new coalition.
The Summit agenda focused on promoting alignment with these technical approaches and a shared understanding of how to support countries in making measured progress towards safely managed sanitation. This includes improving the resilience of sanitation systems to climate-related shocks. A key focus was on bridging knowledge gaps on topics relating to financing, equity, national policies, regulations, standards and implementation strategies within and across organizations. Another was on supporting the transition up the sanitation ladder from open defecation, unimproved, limited or basic services – which have each seen some progress in recent years – to safely managed services.
The Summit also served as a platform for introducing the upcoming "Eight steps towards safely managed sanitation framework", which will be formally launched in November on World Toilet Day. This framework aims to demystify the process of achieving safely managed sanitation, identifying practical applications and developing a common understanding of the process and key areas where all actors can contribute according to their capacities and mandates.
These steps are:
- conduct a situation analysis
- develop an action plan to achieve safely managed sanitation
- establish or update policies, legislations, regulations, standards and guidelines
- finance for safely managed sanitation
- strengthen public data systems
- support improved delivery of sanitation services
- strengthen capacity
- monitor, review plans and share learnings.
