African countries have made efforts to improve water supply and sanitation sector governance and service provision, challenges still remain and current trajectories indicate that the SDG6 goals may not be met without a significant shift in approach. Achieving meaningful actions at scale and impact across the continent requires collaboration among sector actors to strengthen governance, mobilize resources, and create innovative solutions tailored to Africaβs unique challenges.
The 22nd AfWASA Congress provided opportunity to initiate dialogue for an πππ«π’ππ ππππ ππ¨π¨π«ππ’π§πππ’π¨π§ ππ₯ππππ¨π«π¦ as a mode for unified action to accelerate progress toward SDG6 and Agenda 2063: ππ‘π πππ«π’ππ ππ πππ§π.
The high-level dialogue sought to explore mechanisms to foster collaboration, coordination and create a unified framework for WASH in Africa in order to streamline and synergise efforts; mobilise and optimise resources; amplify and scale working practices for results across the continent.
Partnerships among key organisations have proved critical and beneficial in advancing progress and improvements in water supply and sanitation. The high-level dialogue held on 18th February 2025 at the 22nd AfWASA Congress and Exhibition was organised by the African Water and Sanitation Association (AfWASA), the Eastern and Southern Africa Water and Sanitation Regulators Association (ESAWAS) and the Pan-African Association of Sanitation Actors (PASA) in collaboration with International Water Association (IWA).
The dialogue which featured a keynote from the African Ministersβ Council on Water (AMCOW), was chaired by Mr Abdellatif Zerga, the Director of Pan African University Institute of Water and Energy Sciences (PAUWES) and facilitated by Mr Kitch Bawa, the Executive Secretary of PASA. It brought together representatives from government institutions, regional, continental and global organisations and service providers to deliberate on the modalities of establishing such continental coordination platform.
Keynote address by AMCOW Director of Programmes: Mr Nelson Gomonda, reminded the audience that the purpose of AMCOW is to ensure that the right and coherent policies are in place and emphasized the need for coordination in the formulation of a WASH framework to address the sector issues post the Water Vision 2025.Β He advised that water and sanitation was selected as the theme of the African Union Summit in 2026 thus calling for collaboration of partners to prepare accordingly.Β
Keynote address by AfWASA Director of Programmes: Dr SimΓ©on Kenfack flagged that the existence of organisations such as AfWASA, PASA, ESAWAS which were not there before, is clear evidence that Africans can find solutions to the persistent issues in WASH sector if they work together. Each organization has its own focus and it is only through well coordinated efforts that challenges related to enabling environment, strong governance, sustainable financing frameworks and resilient services can be addressed.
Presentation by IWA Senior Officer on behalf of IWA Executive Director: Ms Florence Laker discussed the Call to Action, the global coordination initiative launched in 2024 to strengthen regulation. She highlighted that the Call to Action is for all sector partners working together to create a conducive environment for effective WSS regulation through advocacy for increased political recognition, promotion of good regulatory practices, enhanced technical assistance and strengthened monitoring and evaluation.
Presentation by ESAWAS Executive Secretary: Ms Yvonne Magawa presented the rationale for having an Africa WASH coordination platform. She alluded to the already working partnership between AfWASA, ESAWAS and PASA that brings complementary strengths in regulation and service provision to address common sector issues. Such collaboration needs to be elevated to a continental level to accelerate progress toward Africaβs vision, ensuring that no one is left behind.
Participants welcomed and lauded the idea of WASH Coordination Platform to synergize efforts. They recognized that no single institution can address all the challenges of WASH service delivery across Africa. Thus, the existence of many institutions with different but complementing mandates with proper coordination is an advantage to the sector. They highlighted the following key points to guide the structuring of its framework:
- Consideration of existing platforms such as the Partners Coordination Platform (PCP) created by the African Union under AMCOW, as a framework to support and promote coordination among different partners.
- Clear guiding principles to strengthen governance and accountability. These should consider issues of regional representation, governing bodies (high-level decision maker, advisory body) and avoid bureaucracy that comes with coordination;
- Strengthening the already working coordination between AfWASA, ESAWAS and PASA to show the added value and attract more partners to join.
- Engagement of academic institutions for their contribution in terms of capacity building, research projects, innovations and technologies.
The leading institutions β AfWASA, ESAWAS and PASA were requested to prepare a concept note on how the proposed Africa WASH Coordination Platform should work highlighting the purpose, mission, structure, anchorage and timeline of activities among other aspects.
Mr Abdellatif closed the dialogue session by thanking all the participants for constructive discussions and inputs towards shaping the Africa WASH Coordination Platform. With an example of free electron with high energy but which needs electric power to give direction, Mr Abdellatif emphasized on the potentials that lie in joining efforts to achieve great results.
