The meeting aims to mobilise stakeholders in preparation for the forthcoming UN SDG Summit this year
Kenya is set to host a ground-breaking two-day regional meeting as part of the “#Just Sanitation for African Cities” Campaign and Call for Action. The campaign, which has been running in 7 cities across Africa, mobilizes support for localizing SDG6 with a feminist lens that highlights the needs, capacities, and aspirations of women and girls as sanitation users and providers across the sanitation service chain.
“This meeting will bring together local and metropolitan leadership as well as civil society actors and utility providers from across Africa.” OVERDUE said in their official statement about the event set to be held in the Ngong Hills Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, on 11th and 12th September 2023 (9am – 6p.m. EAT)
OVERDUE, a research-action network that brings together research institutions, NGOs and Consultants focusing on, and working with, the cities of Beira (Mozambique), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Mwanza (Tanzania), Antananarivo (Madagascar), Saint Louis (Senegal), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), and Bukavu (DRC), aims to; reframe sanitation across urban Africa; produce actionable knowledge based on sanitation experiences, practices, and investments; foster regional dialogue and exchange to achieve just sanitation.
A worryingly large number of people in Africa lack access to proper sanitation facilities.
“More than 70 per cent of the population in Eastern and Southern Africa (340 million people) have no access to basic sanitation services. Among these, 98 million people (19 per cent) practise open defecation, 179 million use unimproved facilities, and 63 million shared sanitation facilities.” revealed United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
Poor sanitation in urban areas directly results in illnesses such as cholera and dysentery, typhoid, intestinal worm infections, and polio. The effects of such diseases exacerbate undesirable situations like stunting of both personal and societal growth.
An equally worrying factor about the sanitation crisis in Africa is the slow pace of increase in access to basic sanitation services with projections showing that only 36 per cent of the population will be having access to basic sanitation services by 2030.
In response to this existential threat to the wellbeing of African society, OVERDUE has been conducting a 3 year project from 2021 to 2023 in order to harness insights from the creators and users of off-grid and on-grid sanitation across urban Africa.
“The present and future of African cities depends strongly on building JUST sanitation, as a critical means to improve urban lives, advance gender equality and lessening the impact of climate change.” said OVERDUE
After gathering robust evidence through their action-research project, OVERDUE is now calling upon crucial stakeholders in a Call For Action to galvanise and rally regional and International support ahead of the United Nations SDG Summit to be held in New York on 18th and 19th September 2023.
“Over 50 delegates from more than 20 African cities across Africa will gather to develop and launch a joint Call for Action on JustSanitation4AfricanCities.” says OVERDUE
In a draft call for action dubbed “We C.R.A.V.E #JustSanitation4AfricanCities”, OVERDUE has outlined several points for advocacy which include but not limited to localised action by state and non-state players, support to the full sanitation service chain, & to decent and dignified working conditions for paid and unpaid sanitation workers, a bold feminist perspective on gender equality and inclusion of everyone’s needs, experiences and aspirations.
The acronym C.R.A.V.E stands for Commit, Recognise, Act, Valorise, Engender. For more useful information about the campaign please touch or click https://overdue-Justsanitation.net/outputs/justsanitation4africancities
Follow the conference via OVERDUE’s social media accounts; Facebook @OVERDUE JustSanitation, LinkedIn @OVERDUE Just Sanitation, Twitter/X @Just_OVERDUE, Instagram @overdue_justsanitation