SWA Global Partnership Demonstrates the Impact of Accountability

GENEVA, Nov. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the United Nations' hosted Sanitation and Water for All partnership launched its first Global Report on its Mutual Accountability Mechanism, a unique platform where governments and other stakeholders hold each other to account for progress in achieving the water and sanitation related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.  

The report demonstrates how different types of stakeholders, from governments to the private sector, from donors to civil society organizations, have engaged in a mutual, peer-to-peer accountability exercise at both the national and global levels during its initial three years of implementation. By July 2021, 343 commitments had been tabled by over 120 partners from every region. 

Thus far, 12% of the commitments have been fully achieved, 25% have been almost fully achieved and 37% have seen some progress made, demonstrating the Mechanism's strength in building and sustaining political will to eliminate inequalities in water, sanitation and hygiene and championing multi-stakeholder approaches.

"Accountability is how we translate promises into progress, aspirations into reality," said SWA CEO Catarina de Albuquerque. "All stakeholders have a role to play in moving our societies towards the vision laid out in the Sustainable Development Agenda and the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation. The Mutual Accountability Mechanism has proven to be a practical tool in putting accountability into action." 

The report includes a look at a selection of country experiences, chosen to illustrate the potential of the Mutual Accountability Mechanism to engage different stakeholders and encourage their collaboration.  

One standout example from Bangladesh demonstrated how the Mutual Accountability Mechanism played a vital role in establishing a coalition of civil society, research and learning organizations, and private sector actors to support the government in increasing the sector budget and reduce the budget gap in each fiscal year. As a result of the mutually reinforcing commitments, the Government increased the budget by 75%, from approximately US$ 795 million in 2018-2019 to US$ 1.4 billion in 2021-2022. 

In the next three years, SWA plans to expand uptake, include more stakeholders, embed mutual engagement processes in the way partners interact with one another, and establish more systematic reporting processes. The next Global Report will be published in 2024, six years before the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development draws to a close.

SOURCE The Sanitation and Water for All Partnership