End Water Poverty
Join the call, toilets for all!
Campaign Report 2011
About End Water Poverty
End Water Poverty is an international campaign to achieve sanitation and water for all, supported by a global civil society coalition. Launched in March 2007, this coalition has grown rapidly to include over 180 member organisations and networks in 50 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and Australasia. Over 1.25 million actions have been taken in support of the campaign during its first four years, demonstrating a real global movement for change.
World Walks for Water, March
The World Walks for Waterwas the largest global mobilization for water that has ever taken place. It was held around World Water Day 2011, and involvedover 350,000 people in 75 countries. See
The World Walks for Water has given a voice to people all over the world, and resulted in more campaigning, more engagement with politicians, more media visibility, and more public financing and support for water and sanitation in several countries. For example, in Uganda 30,000 people took part in Walks in 10 districts and a civil society statement was delivered to the Minister of Water and the Environment,attracting extensive radio and print media coverage. Resulting changes are on-going. For example, in Burkina Faso the budget for sanitation has been increased by 400% whilst in Nepal, 300 villages have now been declared ‘open defecation free’.
Least Developed Countries Conference, May 2011
End Water Poverty members lobbied the Least Developed Country Conference at the Prep Com in New York and the Conference itself in Istanbul. The Manifesto of Commitments showed pictures of the Walks for Water event to demonstrate the public support for increased access to water and sanitation, and presented civil society recommendations to the conference. As a result, there was a high profile for water and sanitation at the events, and an agreement to achieve ‘water and sanitation for all by 2020’ was agreed in the final Istanbul Declaration.
‘Join Up Scale Up’ report, September
End Water Poverty worked with five health and water and sanitation organizations to write a report to showcase successful stories of integration between health, nutrition, water, sanitation, agricultural and education policies. They weren’t easy to find – demonstrating how little this is done – but the report made a compelling case for more integration, and aims to influence decision makers to improve policy and practice to defeat disease and poverty.
Sanitation and Water for All
A major success of the campaign was the creation of the Sanitation and Water for All partnership (SWA), an alliance of governments, development banks, civil society and other key players. As End Water Poverty we are supporting the involvement of national and regional networks by sharing information, consulting with members on joint positions and supporting civil society representatives.
Crisis Talks, November
The second major global campaign for 2011 was for members to host national level talks between decision makers, major stakeholders and people in communities affected by the water and sanitation crisis. End Water Poverty wrote and promoted a ‘Crisis Talks’ campaign toolkit and on-line resources for campaigners. These Crisis Talks used the occasion of World Toilet Day to bring attention to the sanitation crisis, demand that governments take a lead on solving this crisis, and invite Ministers to attend the SWA High Level Meeting next April.Crisis Talks have contributed to a much wider effort by many partners in the SWA and, by the beginning of February 2012, 19 countries including 4 donor countries, were preparing to make commitments at the High Level Meeting.
Action in 20 countries!
In Mali, four days of events were held in the lead up to World Toilet Day, whilst in the UK, constituents are already holding personal meetings with their MPs. In Liberia, public hearings were held in three counties and there were Crisis Talks with politicians, journalists, dancers and comedians in the heart of the slums in Malawi. In DRC, public events were held in Kinshasa and Bukavu and in Nepal, there was a campaign for public toilets and to improve the conditions for sanitary workers. Further ‘Crisis Talks’ were held in the Netherlands, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Nigeria, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Togo, Cameroon, Burundi, and Bangladesh.
More information: Jennifer Williams,r
End Water Poverty would like to thank the Dutch WASH Alliance, Tearfund, WSSCC and WaterAid for their financial support