AMCOW holds talks with minister on Africa’s sanitation, hygiene confab | The Guardian Nigeria News

Senior officials of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) secretariat have met new Nigeria’s Minister of Water and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev, to discuss the future of AMCOW, the preparation towards the seventh AfricaSan Conference coming up in Swakopmund, Namibia next month.

They also discussed Africa’s efforts toward the development of the post-2025 Africa Water Vision, elements of AMCOW’s hosting agreement and other global priorities in the water sector, where the minister can intervene.

AMCOW delegation was led by the Executive Secretary, Dr. Rashid Mbaziira. Others are the Director of Programmes, Nelson Gomonda, Knowledge Management, Communications and Visibility Lead, Obinna Anah and Liaison and Corporate Services Lead, Bala Tuham.

According to Rashid, Africa’s water and sanitation aspirations for the future and the outstanding leadership shown by the past minister, Suleiman Adamu, requires the caliber of person with the wealth of experience like Ustiev as successor.

Utsev said the Bola Tinubu administration is focused on sustainable development, “we cannot achieve this successfully without the water sector – for food, agriculture, health and security.

In his remark, AMCOW’s Communications Lead, Obinna Anah, said that the engagement is strategic for AMCOW and the African water sector, considering the wealth of knowledge that the minister is bringing to the table.

The AfricaSan7 conference is organised biennially to promote high-level political prioritisation of sanitation and hygiene issues across Africa. It is convened on the theme: “Strengthening Systems and Partnerships for Accelerated Action on Safely Managed Sanitation and Hygiene.”

The overall objective of the AfricaSan7 Conference is to revitalise the pursuit of the targets of the 2008 Ngor Declaration of African ministers responsible for sanitation and hygiene. Among others, the conference objective includes strengthening partnerships and facilitating knowledge exchange for action on delivering safely managed sanitation and hygiene services.

The conference is expecting 40 ministers responsible for sanitation and hygiene in Africa, together with senior civil servants, academics, civil society, development partners and the private sector.

It will also take stock of the 2023 AfricaSan Ngor report, highlighting member states’ advancements in sanitation; Dakar Declarations of the 9th World Water Forum that elevate sanitation’s role in national development and UN 2023 Water conference decisions to hasten Sustainable Development Goal on sanitation and hygiene. The AfricaSan7 follows in the tradition of six previous editions of the Africa Sanitation and Hygiene conferences – held on a rotational basis across the five African sub-regions.