BLOG: SIWI at High Level Meeting on Sanitation in Addis Ababa

This week, SIWI’s Dr. Alejandro Jiménez is in Addis Ababa attending a High Level Panel organized by Sanitation and Water For All (SWA).

1. What is the event?

The SWA Ministerial Meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The two-day, high-level meeting, under the aegis of the Sanitation and Water for All partnership, and convened by UNICEF, is hosted by the Government of Ethiopia.

2. What’s the objective?

This is a two day meeting to discuss the challenges of SDG implementation in WASH; in other words, how will we achieve universal access to water and sanitation before 2030? What are the challenges ahead? What do we need to do differently?

3. Who is going?

53 Ministers of water from over the world were expected to come, with their technical delegations.  45 are now confirmed. Around 200 people will attend, including CSO representatives.

4. What will your role be?

I will be a resource person in one of the three ministerial breakout sessions discussing challenges for rural areas and small towns.  In these sessions, Ministers discuss in smaller groups, and resource persons are called to give input to the discussion. In addition, I will be acting as a resource person during the last day, when sessions will be conducted with senior government technical staff. I am also part of the group of rapporteurs in other sessions reporting.

5. What do you hope will be the outcome?

The meeting aims to trigger discussion between Ministers of peer countries about the SDGs and the way to achieve them. It is a working meeting. Peer exchanges and future learning are encouraged.

From my perspective, the aim is to contribute to the ministerial discussion on behalf of SIWI, and better understand what are seen as challenges to achieving the SDGs – from national perspective. This will help all of us to better develop our programs and partnerships for SDGs achievement.

Follow #SW4ALL on Twitter for the latest updates from the meeting.

Dr. Alejandro Jiménez, Programme Manager at the UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI (WGF), is a WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) specialist at SIWI. He is one of SIWI’s focal points for water and sanitation governance.