Governments from 50 countries recently gathered in Washington for the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting. They met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim to set concrete targets to bring adequate water and sanitation to millions of people across the globe.

2.5 billion people across the globe are still without adequate sanitation, while almost 750 million are without safe drinking water.

At the meeting, over 50 countries committed to more than 260 concrete actions to strengthen institutions, improve planning, and increase domestic spending and donor investment in water and sanitation. 17 countries committed to end open defecation by 2030 or earlier, while over 20 countries, 14 of them from sub-Saharan Africa, pledged to achieve universal access to water and sanitation within the same period.

The latest data from UNICEF and the World Health Organization released at the meeting show that rapid progress is possible.  In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 30000 people per day gained access to an improved water source between 2000 and 2012. Ethiopia cut in half the proportion of people practicing open defecation over the same period.

However, in general, global progress has been uneven, and those already at the bottom are falling even farther behind.

“We cannot address water and sanitation without addressing inequities, such as disadvantaged girls who can’t go to school because the bathrooms aren’t safe or because they must collect water for their families during school hours when they should be building their futures,” said Lake. “When the global community set the goal of providing water and sanitation for all, that included these girls and every child, everywhere.”

Children in particular will benefit from the new commitments. According to Lake, the poorest children have the least access to safe water and adequate sanitation and they pay the highest price. “The commitments made here today will help meet the right of millions of children to safe water and sanitation.”