The African Development Bank is calling on development partners to scale up their support for the implementation of sanitation projects in order to fast track Africa’s progress and deliver on their promise to the continent.

Speaking at the AfricSan5 conference which took place in Cape Town recently, Osward Chanda, Division Manager in the Bank’s Water Development and Sanitation Department said achieving the Ngor Commitments and the ambitious targets for sanitation and hygiene can only become a reality if it scales up its work.

Chanda cited United Nations estimates that show that some 734 million Africans do not have access to basic sanitation infrastructure, which translates to 62% of the population on the African continent. He also pointed out that there are huge disparities between service levels in rural and urban areas.

Leveraging existing resources

“We need to optimise the resources available and ensure harmonisation of our approaches as development partners, in order to increase opportunities for regional member countries and for them to make the best of the existing resources and leverage on finances available,” Chanda said.

He laid out a presentation of what the Bank has planned to achieve these goals, which includes mobilising resources from a variety of donors, including traditional development partners and the private sector, and drawing up an initial pipeline of inclusive Sanitation projects.

Chanda said the Bank also plans to promote investment opportunities and leverage additional financing from the private sector and other donors.

Further resource mobilisation needed  

The development partners further called for resource mobilisation for sanitation and hygiene and the development of co-financing arrangements to replenish sector wide financing mechanisms such as the AMCOW-initiated African Water Facility and the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative, both hosted by the African Development Bank.