By Aondosoo Labe
| @WASHStories |
The Water Supply
and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) has formally evolved into the
Sanitation and Hygiene Fund (SHF).
In
an online launch event on Tuesday, November 17, 2020 – which was moderated by
international broadcaster Ms Zeinab Badawi, and is available on the SHF website and its YouTube channel; global leaders welcomed the fund as key to
increasing investment in sanitation and hygiene to solve the growing needs of
the sector in the 21st Century – and “to deliver at the scale required to achieve
sanitation and hygiene leaving no one behind,” official communications stated.
The
SHF is a dedicated global fund large enough to invest in government-led
programmes for real impact. It was also revealed that the Fund will be critical
to scale up investments to reach everyone with sanitation services.
Key
speakers during the launch included Ms. Amina J. Mohammed, the UN Deputy
Secretary-General; Dominic O’Neill, Executive Director of the Sanitation and
Hygiene Fund; Nigeria’s Vice President ,Yemi Osinbajo; Ms Henrietta Fore,
Executive Director of UNICEF; Ms. Grete Faremo, Executive Director of United
Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). Ms Grete Faremo, Executive
Director of UNOPS; Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, Deputy Director-General of the World
Health Organization; and Mr. Gilbert Houngbo, Chair of UN-Water and President
of the International Fund for Agricultural Development. The speakers unanimously
stressed the need for a dedicated global sanitation and hygiene fund especially
now as the Coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the need for sanitation and
hygiene in stopping the spread of diseases.
The
online event also included interventions by Ms Petronila Musonye of Kenya Water
for Health Organization and Ms Abenmire Adi, Gender Rights and Sanitation
Advocate for Cross River State, Nigeria, speaking on behalf of civil
society.
WASH
Stories also understands that the Fund supports investments in the following
four strategic priority areas:
•
Scaling-up household sanitation and hygiene services
•
Addressing Menstrual Health and Hygiene (MHH) gaps while promoting empowerment
of women and girls
•
Increasing sustainable water, sanitation, hygiene and MHH services in schools
and health care facilities
•
Supporting innovation towards safely managed sanitation, hygiene and MHH.
Investments
will be designed to strengthen climate resilience.
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