The Sanitation and Water for All is a global partnership committed to achieving universal access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation. In 2015, 2.4 billion people lacked access to improved sanitation, 946 million people defecate in the open and 663 million people lack access to basic water sources. Over 100 partners, including governments, civil society and development partners, work together as part of SWA to coordinate high-level action, improve accountability and use scarce resources more effectively. The SWA Partnership organizes meetings called "High Level Meetings". After two HLM in 2010 and 2012, the third HLM took place in Washington, D.C., in April 2014, with over sixty delegations from developing countries and donors, including 20 finance ministers from SWA partner countries. SWA's communications team was hosted by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council until the end of 2019. From 2020 onwards, it is being hosted by UNICEF.
Membership
SWA's partners are categorized into six different constituencies. Each constituency is represented on the steering committee, which holds decision-making authority for the partnership. SWA has the following partner categories:
SWA provides a framework for partners to work globally, regionally and nationally on three priority areas:
Increase political prioritization to accelerate progress towards universal access to sustainable sanitation and water
Promote the development of a strong evidence base that supports good decision-making
Strengthen government-led national planning processes to guide the development and implementation of sustainable sanitation and drinking water services
Working together on these three areas, SWA aims to increase the impact of available resources and strengthen mutual accountability among partners. It is a platform for partners to act on international aid and development effectiveness principles.
High Level Meetings (HLMs)
The High-Level Commitments Dialogue includes the preparatory process that countries and donors carry out to develop commitments which are later tabled at SWA High- Level Meetings. The commitments are tabled to address bottlenecks holding back progress in water and sanitation. In April 2014, SWA held its third High-Level Meeting attended by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the president of the World Bank, Dr. Jim Yong Kim. The meeting was attended by 20 ministers of finance and 35 ministers responsible for water, sanitation or health. Sixteen donors and development banks also attended the meeting. On behalf of the partnership, the SWA Secretariat monitors these commitments and issues a report on progress made.
Governance and leadership
Sanitation and Water for All is composed of a high-level chair, a steering committee led by an Executive Chair, the partners themselves and a Secretariat. The partnership, through its constituencies, elects the steering committee, who takes overall responsibility for strategic leadership of SWA and elects the SWA executive chair. The chair provides leadership to SWA, and engages politicians and high-level decision-makers on behalf of the partnership. At the Partnership Meeting of November 2015, the Hon. Mr. Kevin Rudd has been appointed as chair. He replaces H. E. Hon. John A. Kufuor, former president of Ghana, who is standing down, having led SWA since its founding in 2010. In September 2018, the Portuguese lawyer Catarina de Albuquerque was appointed Chief Executive Officer. The secretariat supports the functioning of the partnership
History
A number of water and sanitation stakeholders first conceptualised SWA in 2006 to improve access to sanitation and drinking water following the release of two publications:
The Human Development ReportBeyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis, highlights the urgency for key donors and development partners to “provide an institutional point for international efforts to mobilize resources, build capacity and—above all—galvanize political action by putting water and sanitation in a more central position on the development agenda.”
In 2007, DFID reiterated its call for a better WASH sector coordination and the need for a Global Action Plan based “Five Ones”:
one annual global monitoring report;
one high level global Ministerial Meeting on water;
at country level, one national plan for water and sanitation;
one coordinating body;
and activities of the United Nations agencies in water and sanitation to be coordinated by one lead UN body under the UNDP country plan.
In 2008, DFID, the Dutch Directorate-General for International Cooperation, other donors and developing country governments officially agreed to create a Global Framework for Action on Sanitation and Water Supply, which was launched at a side-event during the UN MDG High-Level Event. In April 2010, the partners organized the first high-level meeting in Washington, D.C., US, and developing countries and donors tabled commitments to improve sanitation and water. In September 2010, under a new name – Sanitation and Water for All – the new partnership was formalized with an agreed governing document, an elected steering committee and a secretariat.
