As reported by the New Times, Rwanda. 30th January, 2015
“Rwanda today begins its role in the implementation of a continental water and sanitation plan at the African Union Summit that kicks off today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The initiative, dubbed Kigali Action Plan on Water and Sanitation Goals in Africa, was endorsed last year and is aimed at ensuring access to water and sanitation to at least five million people from 10 AU member states.
At the Summit, the Rwandan delegation is expected to present a report on the plan and its implementation strategies. The plan will be implemented through a joint cooperation by Rwanda, the African Development Bank, and German cooperation Agency.
The last AU Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in 2014, selected Burundi, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan as beneficiaries of the Kigali Action Plan.
Rwanda’s role in the plan is due to its fast progress in increasing the percentage of the population with access to water and sanitation.
According to statistics by the World Health Organisation and Unicef, only 30 per cent of Rwanda’s population had basic toilets and 60 per cent had clean water as of 1990.
However, by 2013, that number had risen 74.5 per cent of people with access to clean water and sanitation services, making Rwanda one of the few African nations to have met the Millennium Development Goal target of halving the proportion of its people without access to sanitation….
“The action plan has come as UN enters final negotiations on the next 15-year blueprint for development in the Sustainable Development Goals.”
An except on Page 3 of the Kigali Action plan points to the success in Rwanda as an example of a good case study as follows:
“A key aspect of the proposed interventions is a consideration of the social, institutional, and funding approaches that are already in use for social mobilisation and community management in the countries. As an example, Rwanda has gained substantial experience with social approaches such as the Community Based Environmental Health Promotion Programme (CBEHPP) and Community Hygiene Club (CHC) the implementation of which has enabled the country to significantly reduce the debilitating national hygiene and sanitation related disease burden and, in so doing, attain key outcomes in efforts to achieve the MDGs targets not only for water supply and sanitation, but also poverty reduction outcomes.”
Page 33 further highlights the success of CBEHPP in Rwanda.
Africa AHEAD is proud to have been part of this success story!