4000 children die every day from diarrhoea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation.
Ban Ki-Moon urged to take new approach ahead of key development summit
International civil society community backs policy paper Breaking Barriers and pushes for response from the UN Secretary-General ahead of global Summit in New York
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12 July 2010
In a letter, co-signed by over 170 organisations, networks and community organisations from across the globe, End Water Poverty calls for the UN Secretary-General to champion a crucial new approach to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and ensure lagging sectors in development are given sufficient attention.
- Read our letter to Ban Ki-Moon (
64KB)
The letter calls for a holistic approach to meet the MDGs, but also a renewed momentum and effort to meet the most off-track goals.
In 2000, Heads of State from 192 countries met and agreed on eight key goals to be met in the fight against poverty. Alongside targets to halve extreme poverty, reduce child mortality by two-thirds and the achievement of universal primary education, was a target to "halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation."
With the scandal that progress in reducing hunger has gone into reverse along with the slow reductions in maternal and child mortality, current trends will see the target for sanitation unmet in Sub-Saharan Africa until the 23rd Century. These realities are untenable if poverty, undernutrition and ill-health are to be defeated.
The letter makes three key recommendations, complementary to the Breaking Barriers ( 765KB) policy briefing:
- Agreeing a Global Action Plan to meet the MDGs, with more and better finances,
robust accountability mechanisms and a greater role for the involvement of civil society. - Enhancing integrated and holistic approaches at a national and global level to
achieve key development outcomes in a more effective and equitable way. - Providing a renewed focus on the most off-track targets and countries: more and
better finance for interlinked targets like nutrition, health, sanitation and water,
comprehensively delivered, with additional focus on the poorest countries.
- Read our letter to Ban Ki-Moon ( 64KB)
The UN MDG+10 Summit will take place in New York from 20-22 September, and End Water Poverty will undertake advocacy activities in the lead up. Find out more about the campaign at www.endwaterpoverty.org/mdg2010.