The symposium united systems thinking with technical expertise and public policy to accelerate the vision of universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene
We know that behind every trusted water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) service is a complex network of people, processes and organisations working in synchrony to keep it all running.
At All systems go Africa we jump started the Sub-Saharan Africa continental water, sanitation and hygiene strengthening agenda.
Systems thinkers and public experts were united to challenge one another to make the changes required to achieve the ambitious water, sanitation and hygiene targets that have been set by national governments across the continent. Through a mix of high-profile panel discussions, creative workshops, and technical conference sessions, the event showcased promising initiatives, convened strategic conversations, and injected momentum into ongoing initiatives to strengthen water, sanitation, and hygiene systems across the 54 countries of Africa.
Look out for our next international symposium!
Interested in All Systems Connect 2023 in The Hague? Click here to learn more.
The symposium featured panel discussions and plenaries as well as interactive parallel sessions and skills-building workshops.
There was a focus on the following thematic areas:
1. The art of achieving universal and safely managed services
2. Increasing political and financial commitment to systems strengthening
3. Improving evidence-informed decision making and accountability
4. Ensuring water, sanitation, and hygiene services in healthcare centres, schools, and public places at scale
5. System building in fragile contexts across the WASH, Humanitarian Development, and Peace triple nexus
6. Excellence and acceleration of WASH governance and service delivery systems in Africa
395 million Africans lack access to safely managed drinking water and 504 million live without safe sanitation services1. While there remains a huge deficit in needed infrastructure, many of the available facilities are managed inadequately, breakdown prematurely, or are poorly regulated, underfunded, and frankly fall short of the dignified public service promised in the human right to water and sanitation.
African governments have demonstrated strong leadership with many countries making bold commitments to tackle this crisis. Reforms, policy updates, and finance strategies are all part of the systems transformation found in countries across Africa. Yet progress is still too slow, and many good ideas and solutions have not borne the expected fruit.
There is a need for inclusive spaces for multi-stakeholder dialogue about the interconnected technical, political, social, and financial systems that influence the delivery of water, sanitation and hygiene services. These can stimulate creative problem-solving, promote the scaling up of good ideas, and mobilise collective action toward the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals2.
African experts and leaders left a major impact on the 2019 All systems go! Symposium in The Hague, The Netherlands- a first-ever global event focused on systems approaches to water, sanitation and hygiene. The experiences and feedback from African participants at the event demonstrated strong demand for a follow-on event, in Africa and focused on the unique challenges of the continent.
1. Equivalent to 52% (without safely managed water) and 67% (without safely managed sanitation) of the population of Africa (Source: UNICEF/ JMP Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene)
2. SDG 17 partnerships for development
Resources selected by IRC and UNICEF
