18 December 2012
WHO, UNICEF Hold Second Consultation on Post-2015 WASH Goals
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The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation (WASH) Second Consultation on the Formulation of Post-2015 WASH Goals considered the “Proposal for Consolidated Drinking-Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Targets.”

5 December 2012: The Second UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation (WASH) Consultation on post-2015 WASH goals and targets builds on the consultation launched by the JMP in May 2011, to review the current state of drinking water and sanitation monitoring, identify strengths and weaknesses of the current Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets, and develop a roadmap for the development of functional WASH indicators by 2015.

The consultation, which took place from 3-5 December 2012, in The Hague, the Netherlands, included sessions on: setting the stage; update on progress since Berlin, the consolidated proposal; the global WASH monitoring landscape; global and local dimensions, reaching out to countries and civil society; mainstreaming the outcomes of the technical process into the political process towards the formulation of a global water goal; and conclusions and recommendations.

The consolidated proposal for global WASH goals was organized around the vision of “safe and sustainable sanitation, hygiene and drinking water used by all” with three aspirational summary targets: everyone has water, sanitation and hygiene at home; all schools and heath centers have water, sanitation and hygiene; and water, sanitation and hygiene are equitable and sustainable.

The proposal then presents four detailed targets: by 2025 no one practices open defecation, and inequalities in the practice of open defecation have been progressively eliminated; by 2030 everyone uses a basic drinking water supply and handwashing facilities at home, all schools and health centers provide all users with basic drinking water supply and adequate sanitation, handwashing facilities and menstrual hygiene facilities, and inequalities in access to each of these services have been progressively eliminated; by 2040 everyone uses adequate sanitation when at home, the proportion of the population not using an intermediate drinking water supply service at home has been reduced by half, the excreta from at least half of schools, health centers and households with adequate sanitation are safely managed, and inequalities in access to each of these services have been progressively reduced; and all drinking water supply, sanitation and hygiene services are delivered in a progressively affordable, accountable and financially and environmentally sustainable manner. The proposal then proceeds to define general terms and indicators for each of these targets.

WASH is the formal instrument to measure target C under Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7, to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. The WHO/UNICEF JMP post-2015 discussions on WASH were initiated in May 2011 to begin definition of post-2015 goals and targets, which led to the establishment of four working groups on water supply, sanitation, hygiene, and equity and non-discrimination (END). The working groups have convened throughout 2012, including at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), with the objective of developing WASH goal and target proposals to be tabled at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2013. [Second WHO/UNICEF Consultation on the Formulation Post-2015 WASH Goals Website] [Agenda and Approved Programme of Work] [Publication: Proposal for Consolidated Drinking-Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Targets]

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