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Africa’s pledge to end open defecation by 2030 lauded

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Africa’s pledge to end open defecation by 2030 lauded

WaterAid has welcomed the pledges of African leaders to eliminate inequalities and end open defecation in their countries by 2030, and to work towards giving every person access to safe sanitation and good hygiene.

The AfricaSan 4 conference. Photo credit: Javier Acebal/WSSC
The AfricaSan 4 conference. Photo credit: Javier Acebal/WSSC

Recognising that poor sanitation in Africa undermines the continent’s social and economic development and has serious health impacts on the population, including diarrhoea, African ministers responsible for sanitation and hygiene have committed to universal access by signing the Ngor Declaration on sanitation and hygiene.

The declaration closes AfricaSan 4, a conference of African governments, civil society and development partners from 25-27 May in Dakar. The event was inaugurated by the president of Senegal.

Ngor – meaning ‘dignity’ in Wolof, the Senegalese national language – is an ambitious declaration highlighting the commitment of African countries to put the elimination of open defecation among their top priorities, and advance towards the aspirations of the Sustainable Development Goals to reach everyone, everywhere with clean water and basic sanitation by 2030.

The Ngor declaration also emphasises the importance of eliminating inequalities, which will require redoubled efforts to reach the poorest, those living in slums or remote rural areas and other marginalised groups. Sanitation is to be understood as a service, rather than simply infrastructure – including work to change behaviours as well as the safe management of faecal sludge, a pressing issue especially in informal urban settlements.

These commitments, if followed up and monitored, will ensure the protection of dignity and health of everyone in Africa.

Mariame Dem, Head of West Africa for WaterAid, said: “We are glad to see this commitment from African leaders to re-evaluate priorities and fast-track progress on sanitation, to eliminate open defecation and bring better health and dignity to their citizens. These are ambitious commitments; with political will and financing, they are achievable.

“Every man, woman and child in the world deserves the dignity of a safe, hygienic toilet. Yet nearly 650 million sub-Saharan Africans are still without access to basic sanitation. We know that ambitious commitments alone are not enough. Leaders need to deliver on their promises.”

The timing of the Ngor declaration is critical. Poor sanitation in Africa undermines the continent’s social and economic development. It also carries serious health impacts. Diarrhoea kills 400,000 children in sub-Saharan Africa each year and causes the loss of an estimated 1-2.5% of GDP annually from medical costs and reduced productivity.

While the proportion of people practising open defecation in sub-Saharan Africa decreased by 11% between 1990 and 2012, the actual number of people forced to relieve themselves at roadsides and in fields has actually grown by 33 million, because of the continent’s rapid population growth. WaterAid analysis suggests at current rates of progress, sub-Saharan Africa will not meet even the original Millennium Development Goal on sanitation – to halve the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation – for 150 years.

Dr. Michael Ojo, WaterAid Nigeria’s Country Representative, said: “In Nigeria, the proportion of people practising open defecation between 1990 and 2012 has only decreased by 1%. This figure needs to change and progress must be accelerated if the country is to experience real development.

“Universal access means ensuring everyone everywhere has access to a safe, hygienic toilet at home, at school, in health centres and in other public places. This is the only way we can have a fighting chance of eliminating open defecation.

“The Ngor declaration is another promise we must hold our leaders accountable for but it is also one we all must take responsibility for making a happen.”

Less than four months remain before United Nations member states finalise new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to end extreme poverty and will guide the path of development for the next 15 years. WaterAid is campaigning for a dedicated SDG on water and sanitation, and inclusion of water, sanitation and hygiene into goals, targets and indicators.

WaterAid has unveiled a redesigned WASHWatch reporting system to track African nations’ commitments to bringing water and sanitation to their citizens. It shows that 53.3 million Africans must be reached each year for the next 15 years if we are to reach everyone with basic sanitation by 2030. The map also shows that although 0.5 million people are currently gaining access to basic sanitation in Nigeria every year, this will need to increase by an extra 12 million people to reach everyone by 2030.

Amid deadly India heat waves, group charges Bonn climate talks

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Amid deadly India heat waves, group charges Bonn climate talks

Governments meeting in Bonn, Germany, for the next two weeks to search for a  sustainable solution to the global problem of climate change, will do so against the backdrop of the latest devastating climate phenomenon with India experiencing unprecedented heat waves that have killed more than 1,000 people already.

Men sleeping on concrete road dividers during a heat wave in Delhi, India. Photo credit: cnn.com
Men sleeping on concrete road dividers during a heat wave in Delhi, India. Photo credit: cnn.com

Global humanitarian and advocacy network ACT Alliance said that India’s heat wave alongside the increase in climate related disasters across the world in the last few years shows the urgent need for governments to agree to a global climate agreement that will support people already impacted today.

The UN climate talks, which are underway from 1-11 June, will see parties revising the draft climate agreement text, to move the negotiations forward for a final agreement to be signed in December this year when ministers meet in Paris.

ACT Alliance said that while the draft text is long and full of varying proposals from different governments, it includes many good proposals, such as commitments to scale up new and additional climate finance and to address the effects of loss and damage.

“If the best parts are picked out, we will get an agreement that can promote a global transformation towards green, low carbon and resilient future,” said Mattias Söderberg, head of the ACT Alliance delegation in Bonn. “Such an agreement would save lives, decrease the risk for conflicts, and support sustainable development and growth.”

While governments agree that there is need for climate action, conflict remains as to how to move forward, with a real risk of some of the most critical elements being lost from the agreement, Söderberg said.

“The key questions include who will contribute with the necessary climate finance? How will efforts and responsibilities be shared? And, which challenges should be addressed through the Paris agreement? Parties are far apart, with different priorities.”

ACT Alliance Global Climate Ambassador Archbishop Thabo Cecil Makgoba, Head of Anglican Church in South Africa, agreed: “There is a great risk that the text will be watered down. Many of the good proposals are also controversial, and they may be cut out to enable agreement based on consensus. For people who are already being affected by climate change, it is crucial that the ambition isn’t cut out. We need climate action, and we call on governments to consider how their decisions affect those who are most vulnerable to climate change. We desperately hope that governments will do the needful by agreeing to elements that will enhance climate action.”

In the months to come governments are expected to present their national climate targets, with a few countries such as the EU, USA, Russia and Mexico having already made their pledges, which Söderberg said were far from what is needed.

“In light of the recent pledges the need for a global agreement becomes clear. National commitments are far from enough, compared to the recommendations by science. Thus there is a need for global initiatives to pull the ambit i on up.”

Government tasked on illicit tobacco trade

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Government tasked on illicit tobacco trade

For tobacco control measures to be effective , the Federal Government must take pro-active measures to tackle the inflow of illicit tobacco products into the country, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), has said.

ERA/FoEN Director of Corporate Accountability Campaigns, Akinbode Oluwafemi
ERA/FoEN Director of Corporate Accountability Campaigns, Akinbode Oluwafemi

In a statement released to mark this year’s World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), the group stated that the Tobacco Control  Law recently signed by former president, Goodluck Jonathan, can only be effective if high taxes are imposed on tobacco products and effective actions  taken to  end the availability of cheap products through smuggling.

With this year’s theme of  “Stop Illicit Trade In Tobacco”,  the World Health Organisation (WHO) submitted, “Eliminating the illicit trade in tobacco would generate an annual tax windfall of US$ 31 billion for governments, improve public health, help cut crime and curb an important revenue source for the tobacco industry.

The ERA/FoEN Director of Corporate Accountability Campaigns, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said, “Now that Nigeria has a tobacco control law, government must plug every hole that could undermine its effectiveness. A very big hole is the
smuggling of tobacco products through our very porous borders.

“A worrying trend that government however, needs to know is that the big tobacco companies use smuggling as market penetration tool. They are therefore never to be treated as ally in the fight to end smuggling. They have at several times used smuggling arguments  to scare government from imposing appropriate taxes on cigarette products. We do expect the new government not to succumb to  their cheap blackmail. This government will do public health and the economy a lot of good  by raising taxes on tobacco products and prosecuting whoever engages in tobacco smuggling.

ERA/FoEN lamented that more and more unregulated tobacco products like Shisha now flood the Nigerian market and called on government to immediately begging nationwide implementation of the National Tobacco Control Law. The group emphasised that, as the Federal Government begins to “take steps to implement proven measures to reduce tobacco use, it  can further increase the impact of  the law by taking action to crack down on illicit trade and neutralise the tobacco industry’s ability to use illicit trade as an argument to stop progress.”

“We must take every step necessary to ensure that our populace is prevented from the harms caused by tobacco which is estimated at six million lives every year. Government must ensure that all arteries to cheap tobacco products
are blocked.

“We are also using the occasion to call on the Fedreal Government to ratify the World Health Organisation- Framwork Convention on Tobacco Products (FCTC) Protocol for the to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products,”
Akinbode added.

Menstrual hygiene and safe water access challenges

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Menstrual hygiene and safe water access challenges

Menstrual Hygiene Day, 28 May, is a day to celebrate women, a day to talk about periods, and a day to think about the billions of women in the world without a toilet and the millions without access to safe water, as well as the impact this has on menstrual hygiene.

menstrual-hygieneThe widespread lack of access to toilets and water in the world has a devastating impact on girls and women. One in three women do not have access to a toilet during their periods; having to find a safe place to go to the toilet in the open is undignified and risky.

Stigma about menstruation means women do not seek the help and information they need, while the lack of hygiene facilities in schools isa major reason for young girls dropping out of education when they reach puberty. UNESCO estimates one in 10 African girls miss school during their periods, leading to a higher dropout rate.

In developing countries like Nigeria, many women do not have access to sanitary products to manage their menstrual hygiene and have to use items like rags, newspaper or leaves instead.

Barbara Frost, WaterAid’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “Every day, 800 million women have their period, and yet most of us consider it an embarrassing and taboo subject. There are even elaborate euphemisms to avoid saying the word ‘period’.

“Menstruation is an important women’s issue. One in three women around the world do not have access to a toilet during their periods and millions more suffer discrimination because of beliefs that they are ‘contaminated’ or ‘impure’.

“More needs to be done so that every woman and girl has access to water, sanitation and hygiene by 2030.”

Nearly every culture in the world has its own set of myths about periods.

In Nigeria, it is believed that a touch from a menstruating woman will cause milk to curdle, plants to die and a mirror to lose its brightness. In Nepal, the belief that menstrual bleeding makes women ‘impure’ has led many to be banned from entering their own houses or interacting with family members while menstruating. And in the UK, many still believe that swimming during menstruation makes women more prone to attacks by sharks.

Clarisse Baghnyan, Coordinator of WaterAid’s Regional Learning Centre for Sanitation, said: “We continue to call for a drastic shift in our thinking and attitude so that we can bring an end to the stigma that still surrounds menstruation. We must ensure that our girls have decent and separate toilet facilities in schools along with hand-washing facilities otherwise their health is put at risk and they are likely to miss or drop out of school rather than face humiliation because of a lack of privacy.

“It’s time to start talking about this issue. By talking about periods, we can help normalise this natural process and help girls and women live healthier and more dignified lives.”

Last year, WaterAid joined a coalition of organisations including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Save the Children, to declare the first-ever Menstrual Hygiene Day. This year marks the second commemoration of the day.

This year, the UN will finalise the Sustainable Development Goals, guiding the path of development for the next generation with the aim of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. WaterAid is lobbying for a dedicated goal on water and sanitation and inclusion of water, sanitation and hygiene into goals, targets and indicators on health, education and gender rights. No woman should have to deal with her period without the security and dignity of a safe, private toilet.

WaterAid is part of action/2015, a global movement of 1,200 organisations in 125 countries working to ensure a better future for people and our planet in this transformative year for tackling poverty, inequality and climate change.

Activists laud Jonathan for endorsing tobacco bill

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Activists laud Jonathan for endorsing tobacco bill

The National Tobacco Control Bill Coalition has commended President Goodluck Jonathan for Signing the National Tobacco Control Bill, calling it an extraordinary public health legacy.

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 23JAN13 - Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, President of Nigeria speaks during the televised session 'De-risking Africa - Achieving Inclusive Prosperity' at the Annual Meeting 2013 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 23, 2013. Copyright by World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo Remy Steinegger

In a statement issued Wednesday, May 27 2015, the coalition comprising the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Environmental Rights Action /Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) and Nigeria Tobacco Control Coalition (NTCA) also commended members of the 7th National Assembly for fast-tracking the bill process so that it was ready for the President’s assent.

CISLAC Executive Director,  Auwal  Musa Rafsanjani, described the bill’s presidential accent as a remarkable step in efforts to protect the Nigerian people from the dangerous effects of smoking.

“We salute the courage of President Jonathan in signing this bill to law, ignoring overtures by the tobacco industry to frustrate every effort to enact a comprehensive tobacco control legislation in Nigeria.”

Director Corporate Accountability Campaigns, ERA/FoEN, Akinbode Oluwafemi, noted: “Though there is no perfect bill, more work needs to be done in ensuring that every Nigerian is protected from the harmful effects of tobacco. This bill is however providing Nigeria the necessary framework for action both at the local, state and national levels.

“Tobacco is major public health challenge and it is a welcome relief that Nigeria has finally join the league of nations that have taken proactive steps to protect their citizens.”

Project Manager at NTCA, Gbenga Adejuwon, urged government to immediately ignite processes and mechanisms that will ensure effective implementation of the law.

“We want to thank Mr. President for signing the bill into law. The immediate action should be on implementation. We want to see the Ministry of Health rising up to the occasion by leading all stakeholders for effective implementation of the law.”

The National Tobacco Control Law is aimed at regulating the production, sale, marketing and consumption of tobacco products in Nigeria.

The highlights of the law include: ban of smoking in public places, ban of tobacco advertising sponsorship and promotion, ban of sale of cigarette in single sticks, ban of sale of  tobacco products to minors, mandatory warning messages on cigarette packs among others.

The tobacco bill was initially passed in 2011 but was not accented to by President Jonathan.

The bill has all these years received tremendous support from public health advocates and public health professionals.

ActionAid demands action on protection of child’s rights

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ActionAid demands action on protection of child’s rights

ActionAid Nigeria, an anti-poverty agency, has called on the Nigerian government to prioritise protection of every Nigerian child and more concerted efforts at rescuing the Chibok girls.

Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Ojobo Ode Atuluku
Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Ojobo Ode Atuluku

The group, which made this call on the occasion of 2015 Children’s Day  called on the Federal, State and Local Governments in the country to make more commitments towards the protection and guaranteeing the rights of the Nigerian child.

In a statement, the Country Director, Ojobo Ode Atuluku, said, “In the past two years, over 100 students have been killed in different attacks on schools in the North-East, with over 1,000 kidnapped or abducted. 10.5 million Nigerian children of school going age are currently out of school, the highest number in the world. About 60 per cent of those children are girls and most of them live in the north of the country.”

Explaining further the magnitude of the out of school children in Nigeria, Atuluku added that “implication of this is that one out of every three primary school age children is out of school, and roughly one out of four junior secondary school age children is out of school”. This situation is likely to get worse as she explained due to security challenges, which has resulted in numerous children currently having no access to schools in parts of the north, and particularly in the northeast.

The ActionAid Country Director also raised concern that the current quality of education in the country now poses a threat to quality adult life for the Nigerian child, especially those from poor background. “The quality of education has continued on a free fall, and this is evidenced in the performance of students in external exams such as NECO, WAEC and JAMB. Of the 1,692,435 students who sat for the May/June 2014 WAEC examinations only 46.7% passed with five credits.”

School children in Borno State, Nigeria. Photo credit: premiumtimesng.com
School children in Borno State, Nigeria. Photo credit: premiumtimesng.com

Atuluku also expressed concern on the lack of adequate learning infrastructure for the Nigerian child. “As established in recent studies, the country has neglected to invest in relevant infrastructure that would facilitate learning for the Nigerian child. At 4.1% allocation to education in the 2015 federal government budget Nigeria is still lagging far behind the 26% UNESCO minimum budget recommendation for education.

“Providing reliable and comfortable learning environment for children is a rights issue, which is also tied to securing a future for the children”, stated Atuluku who also expressed concern that the schools in the country as at now are understaffed with the ratio of pupils to qualified teachers in primary schools currently standing at 150:1.

Bemoaning the situation in which Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five year olds every day, making the country the second largest contributor to the under–five mortality rate in the world, Atuluku said that “it is an unnegotiable duty of governments from the federal down to local government levels to invest more in maternal and child health care as well as put in place relevant infrastructure at the community levels to guarantee primary health care which would protect children’s right to life and good health. “The Nigerian government needs to ensure the justiciability of the rights of Nigerian child, where government officials who fail to provide and guarantee these rights could be tried and sentenced, if found guilty”, Atuluku stated.

The ActionAid Nigeria boss who called all tiers of government to uphold their obligation to protecting the rights of the child, as Nigerian is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, said that “it is time to move away from rhetorics and governments become more accountable on the protection of the rights of every single Nigerian child.” 

How graft stalled distribution of N9.3b clean cookstoves

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How graft stalled distribution of N9.3b clean cookstoves

The controversy trailing the N9.3 billion contract awarded by the Federal Executive Council for the purchase of clean cookstoves and wonder bags is far from being over as efforts to procure and distribute the stoves are allegedly being frustrated by officials of the Ministry of Environment.

Sample clean cookstoves
Sample clean cookstoves

The contract was awarded to Messrs Integra Renewable Energy Services Limited late last year for the procurement of 750,000 clean cookstoves of various models and 18,000 wonder bags for free distribution to women in the rural areas.

The ministry started with the inauguration of an implementation committee made up of members drawn from development partners, civil societies, media, auditors and procurement officers from the ministry but the committee was disbanded on the order of the minister after three sittings.

Suspecting foul play, a non-governmental organisation, Connected Development (CODE), wrote to the Minister of Environment, Laurentia Mallam, on the strength of the Freedom of Information Act demanding a detailed breakdown of how the N9.3 billion was used and how the stoves and wonder bags would be distributed.

CODE also conducted a stakeholders meeting recently on the clean cook stoves and participants at the meeting were told how efforts to get the ministry to explain to Nigerians when the stoves would be distributed failed to yield result.

The group was able to trace the contract file between the ministry and Messrs Integra Renewable Energy Services Limited and it showed that 15 per cent of the contract sum had been paid to the contractor as mobilisation.

Investigations however revealed that while only 15 per cent of the contract sum was paid to the contractor, records at the ministry showed that about 40 per cent of the contract sum had been paid out.

Following the mobilisation, our checks revealed that the contractor had procured and brought into the Velodrome at the National Stadium over 200,000 pieces of the clean cookstoves including mini LPGs, Stove 80, Envirofit, among others.

The ministry was to follow up on the issuance of waiver to the company for the procurement but this was also terminated and as a result over 500,000 pieces of the stoves are currently being held at one of the ports in Lagos.

The ministry, in its bid to thwart the contract, also wrote to the bank that granted an Advance Payment Guarantee to the company to stop further transaction with the company as it had failed to carry out the contract.

A staff of the bank who pleaded anonymity said: “We were shocked when we saw the letter from the ministry but the contractor was able to bring evidence to the bank of work done so far and certified by officials of the ministry.”

A directorate staff at the accounts department in the ministry who also didn’t want to be mention disclosed that the going on in the ministry regarding the stoves showed clearly that the stoves would never get to the rural women.

“The contractor is subjected to all sorts of abuses and ridicule because he has refused to ‘cooperate’ and if things continue this way, I’m sure they will never be paid,” the source said, “The contractor was asked to bring in a little less number of the stoves than what was contained in the contract but his refusal has pitched him against the minister who has only few days left in the ministry and the permanent secretary who has taken charge of the whole affair.”

Several attempts were made to carry out a national launch of the scheme but none came to pass as a lot of interests ensured that it did not happen, chief among which was that if the scheme was launched in the middle of campaigns the overall meaning or purpose for which it was meant will be defeated.

Various stakeholders have kicked against the scheme saying that free distribution of the stoves would kill the emerging clean cookstove market which painstaking efforts had gone into building over the years.

Effort to reach the contractor was not successful as he was said to have relocated from his office in the Central Business District in Abuja.

The ministry’s spokesperson, Bem Gong, said the minister cannot honour a request for an interview on the issue as she was busy with handover activities.

Gong however said that all inquires, issues or questions regarding the clean cook stoves would be addressed by the ministry in a press release that will be sent out on June 5 to commemorate the World Environment Day.

By Alex Abutu (Daily Trust Newspaper)

Climate change: More resilient agriculture required

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Climate change: More resilient agriculture required

Food Tank and The Lexicon for Sustainability feature farming and resilience through The Food List, a cross-media messaging campaign that provides the vital tools needed for fixing the food system

Agriculture in Africa is rain fed and thus vulnerable to climate change. Photo credit: osundefender.org
Agriculture in Africa is rain fed and thus vulnerable to climate change. Photo credit: osundefender.org

Farmers depend on just a handful of crop varieties, which can be more easily wiped out by pests, diseases, or climate change. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), approximately half of farmland in the United States is planted with corn or soy, accounting for about 150 million acres. This lack of diversity limits farmers’ ability to adapt to changing weather patterns and climate change.

“The question is not whether systems this brittle will break down, but when and how, and whether when they do, we’ll be prepared to treat the whole idea of sustainability as something more than a nice word,” wrote Michael Pollan.

A more resilient agricultural system is needed, especially in the face of climate change

“With 80 million more mouths to feed each year and with increasing demand for grain-intensive livestock products, the rise in temperature only adds to the stress. If we continue with business as usual on the climate front, it is only a matter of time before what we (saw) in Russia becomes commonplace,” said Lester Brown, U.S. environmental analyst, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, and founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute.

Dr. Bianca Moebius-CluneFamily farmers and food revolutionaries are working to create this paradigm shift by restoring ecological resilience in their local communities. Farmers are diversifying their cropping systems and working together on projects to preserve biodiversity in fields and on plates.

According to Dr. Bianca Moebius-Clune, Soil Health Division Director for the U.S. National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), farmers are improving soil’s “ability to take in and hold ‘water in the bank.’ They’re even creating wildlife and pollinator habitat—all while decreasing risks from extreme weather and harvesting better profits and often better yields.”

Here’s how family farmers, food heroes, and organisations around the world are working to create resilient local food systems that are immune to the shocks of climate change and ecological disturbance.

Adapt-N is an interactive tool developed by researchers at Cornell University, designed to help corn growers reduce nitrogen applications based on site-specific recommendations. The website is part of a suite of decision-support tools from Cornell that aim to help farmers mitigate and adapt to climate change in the United States.

DivSeek, an international partnership launched in January of 2015, is working to use big data in order to catalog the physical and genetic information held within international gene banks, and to make it available online. The initiative, involving 69 organizations from 30 countries, enhances the productivity and resilience of global crops by giving breeders and researchers access to information through an online portal.

In the Philippines, Dr. Wilson Cerbito, Assistant Regional Director of the Department of Agriculture, addressed the First Agriculture Summit on May 7, 2015, noting the Philippines is the third most vulnerable country in the world to climate change. The event aimed to outline strategies for improving productivity of rice and root crops through technologies and practices that promote ecological resilience.

Full Belly Farm in California received the California Leopold Conservation Award for its land stewardship and conservation efforts. Judith Redmond, a manager of the farm, demonstrated resilience in the face of extreme drought by changing her crop choices, implementing drip irrigation, and reducing her reliance on groundwater. The creek that usually irrigates her crops ran completely dry last year, but Redmond was still able to irrigate her crops using micro-irrigation.

La Red de Guardianes de Semillas (The Network of Seed Guardians) is preserving rare plant varieties and culturally important seeds in Tumbaco, Ecuador. The community model for seed-saving fosters exchange of cultural knowledge between small farmers, trains growers on permaculture techniques, and works to preserve biodiversity throughout Ecuador. The coupling of cultural heritage and biological heredity in something so small as a seed gets at the heart of the resilience concept; the more biologically and culturally varied a system, the more buffered it is against disturbance.

The Lexicon of Sustainability is spreading the word about agricultural resilience through information artworks and inventive media campaigns. Douglas Gayeton, multimedia artist and founder of the Lexicon of Sustainability, emphasizes, “there are farmers who believe in biodiversity instead of monoculture. Farmers who build soil fertility without depending on chemicals. Farmers who go beyond organic.” By defining terms such as True Cost Accounting, The Lexicon of Sustainability seeks to describe a vision for resilience through engaging stories.

African nations urged on 2030 sanitation targets

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African nations urged on 2030 sanitation targets

African leaders must prioritise sanitation from the highest decision making levels and support the proposed UN Sustainable Development Goal to ensure water and sanitation for all by 2030, said the international development agency, WaterAid in Dakar, Senegal at the AfricaSan 4 conference.

Mariame Dem, WaterAid’s West Africa Head of Region. Photo credit: globalhealth.thelancet.com
Mariame Dem, WaterAid’s West Africa Head of Region. Photo credit: globalhealth.thelancet.com

The much-anticipated conference, which was postponed for eights months due to the Ebola outbreak, commenced on Tuesday, 25 May and will be rounded up Wednesday, 27 May, 2015. The forum is attempting to build momentum to address the sanitation crisis across the African continent.

The conference comes at a critical time as UN member nations negotiate the final stages of the new Sustainable Development Goals, which will come into effect next year and determine the shape of development to 2030.

Currently more than 70% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to sanitation, and a quarter of the population practices open defecation.  Every year 400,000 children under five die in Africa because of diseases linked to poor sanitation – almost four times as many as in the rest of the world combined.

To support monitoring and engagement, WaterAid has just unveiled its redesigned WASHWatch reporting system to track Africa’s commitment to bring water and sanitation to its citizens and support universal access for all.

The centrepiece of WASHWatch is a new interactive world map of water and sanitation, which shows predicted progress by 2030 – the target date proposed for the new UN Sustainable Development Goals for achieving basic toilets for all.

WaterAid’s new WASH Map demonstrates that despite assurances from African nations that sanitation is a priority; by 2030 more than 66% of the African population will still be living without adequate sanitation – a reduction of only 4% over the next 15 years.

Political leadership is vital to accelerate progress in financing, monitoring and capacity development, and ensure that no one is left behind on the road to 2030.

An additional 50 million people a year will need to be provided with access to safe, sanitary toilets if Africa is to meet its target. 

Mariame Dem, WaterAid’s West Africa Head of Region, said: “Not enough progress has been made on sanitation and it is time for African leaders to honour their commitments. Some 53.3 million Africans must be reached each year if we are to reach everyone in Sub-Saharan Africa with basic, hygienic toilets by 2030.

“This is an immense undertaking, particularly in Africa where the lack of sanitation is so widespread, and it cannot be achieved unless African leaders commit with political will and financing to prioritise sanitation.

“We are calling on the African ministers attending AfricaSan 4 to put their promises into action. Their people need dedicated leaders who are willing to rally their resources and do everything in their power to reach everyone in their nations.  Ambitious targets alone are not enough.”

Poor sanitation has a terrible impact on both the health and economies of African nations, which lose on average between 1% and 2.5% of their GDP to lost productivity and medical costs associated with treating illnesses linked to dirty water and poor sanitation.

Dr. Michael Ojo, WaterAid Nigeria’s Country Representative
Dr. Michael Ojo, WaterAid Nigeria’s Country Representative

Access to clean water, basic sanitation and good hygiene practices are basic human rights. They free women and children from the chore of fetching water and the dangers associated with open defecation to allow them to work or attend school, and are critical to good health.

Dr. Michael Ojo, WaterAid Nigeria’s Country Representative, said: “Nigeria must see the elimination of open defecation as an urgent priority and important first step towards achieving universal access to basic sanitation facilities and improving safe management of excreta. Access to safely-managed sanitation is critical, not only at the household level, but also in institutional settings, including schools and health care facilities.

“Access to sanitation is recognized as a Human Right and therefore attention must be given to ensuring the progressive elimination of inequalities in access so no one is left behind. This implies increased attention to the bottom quintile of the population which includes urban slum, remote rural areas, and marginalized groups especially women and girls.

“It defies logic that as influential as Nigeria is on the continent, we remain one of only a handful of countries around the world where access to basic sanitation is actually falling rather than rising. We call on our own leaders to invest the resources needed to provide safe water, sanitation and hygiene for its people. We must continue to demand that our leaders embrace new and ambitious policies that will eradicate poverty, inequality and change the future of Nigerians for the better.”

The WASH Map identifies those African nations which are lagging the furthest behind the 2030 sanitation target, with the furthest behind shown to be Togo, Malawi, Niger and Sierra Leone.  Only one in ten people in Togo and Malawi will have access to sanitation by 2030. Nigeria is number ten on the list with only about two in ten people projected to have access to sanitation by 2030 if current trends continue.

The Seychelles and Mauritius are predicted to make the strongest progress, with 3% and 8% of the population still living without sanitation respectively by 2030, but even they fail to reach the target of universal access. These are closely followed by South Africa at 12% and Angola at 14%.  Only six countries in the region will manage to reach 50% of the population or more with basic, sanitary toilets.

WaterAid is part of action/2015, a global movement of 1,200 organisations in 125 countries working to ensure a better future for people and our planet in this transformative year for tackling poverty, inequality and climate change.

Donors urged to support Africa ecological farming

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Donors urged to support Africa ecological farming
Foundations and international donors can play a greater role in providing assistance to scale-up ecological farming initiatives in Africa, according to a report released today by Greenpeace Africa. The report entitled Financing Ecological Farming in Africa – a Guide for International Donors spells out the crucial financial, technical, capacity and network-building support that donors can provide.
Kumi Naidoo
Kumi Naidoo. Photo credit: www.greenpeace.org

Over recent years there has been an upsurge of investment into the agriculture sector in developing countries by governments, development co-operation agencies, philanthropies and the private sector. But more needs to be done.

“The donor community must be more courageous in its support of Africa’s small-scale farmers,” said Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo, ahead of a meeting in Milan of the European Foundation Centre, at which he will be giving the closing address. “Foundations and donor organisations should seek out and invest in ecological farming initiatives that value the crucial role of farmers, promote food resilience in times of climate change and contribute to better rural livelihoods.”
The Greenpeace guide builds upon the mounting body of evidence that achieving long-lasting improvements in the livelihoods of small-scale farmers in East Africa and the rest of the world requires building ecological farming systems that create new livelihood opportunities, improve productivity, improve food and nutritional security and provide greater resilience against the impacts of climate change.
The guide, that follows an earlier Greenpeace report entitled “Fostering Economic Resilience – The financial Benefits of Ecological Farming in Kenya and Malawi”, highlights that with successful donor innovations and interventions farmers can increase yields significantly, on average by 79% across a wide variety of crops.
“A major shift in donor financing towards more ecological and climate resilient forms of agriculture is required to end the detrimental impacts of destructive agriculture,” said Naidoo. “This can break the cycle of dependency on large quantities of chemical fertilisers and pesticides and address the multiple challenges facing small-scale producers.”
Greenpeace Africa is calling on governments and the community of financial donors to support small-scale farmers through four primary channels that include: research and training institutions; community seed banks and exchange networks; public procurement schemes; and producer organisations and co-operatives.
 

 

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