AMCOW activates water, sanitation reporting portal
NAN-H-28
Portal
By Tosin Kolade
Abuja, Jan. 28, 2017 (NAN) The African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) has activated the online portal of the continent’s water sector and sanitation reporting system ahead of the upcoming 28th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union holding in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The new Pan-African Monitoring and Reporting System serves as a platform to report progress on the implementation of the AU Heads of States and Government Sharm el Sheikh Commitments to accelerate the achievement of the Africa Water Vision 2025.
The statement quotes AMCOW’s President and Minister for Water and Irrigation, Tanzania, Mr Gerson Lwenge as saying that the system will help to address Africa’s longstanding challenges in producing harmonised water and sanitation monitoring data.
He added that it shows global high level political commitments on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on water and sanitation.
Lwenge said the system represents Africa’s readiness to learn from past mistakes in monitoring the implementation of the MDGs as well as efforts being made to attain Africa’s Agenda 2063.
“The lack of credible national and regional water sector and sanitation monitoring and reporting systems in Africa was widely recognised as a critical constraint to making informed policy and investments decisions on the development and effective use of water resources and sanitation in the continent,” Lwenge added.
The statement also quotes the AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Rhoda Tumusiime as saying that ongoing actions such as this ensures Africa’s readiness to monitor and report on progress towards achieving the SDGs.
Tumusiime added that it would also provide a great opportunity to establish baselines not just for the global indicator framework, but also for the African commitments for which efforts to monitor progress towards attainment are constrained by the lack of baseline data.
The statement quotes AMCOW’s Executive Secretary, Dr Canisius Kanangire, as also saying that the system provides African Member States an opportunity to own and manage the water sector and sanitation data.
Kanangire reiterated that the issue of water sector and sanitation monitoring and reporting gained momentum in July 2008 with the AU Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration requesting AMCOW to report annually on the state of the continent’s water resources and sanitation.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the web-based Reporting system was developed with funding from the African Water Facility (AWF).
NAN also reported that the system was supported by the M&E Task Force, the German Cooperation as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
NAN further reports that the online portal comes with maps and tabular view options which makes it easy to compare progress on various indicators across Member States in Africa.
The highlight of the portal can be accessed at http://www.africawat-sanreports.org. (NAN)
TAK/ESAN/AFA
Edited by Abiodun Esan/Felix Ajide