Africa water and sanitation sector monitoring – training workshop in Accra

On 2-5 May 2017, country representatives from across the African region and other national, regional and global stakeholders gathered in Accra to discuss water and sanitation sector monitoring and reporting.

The workshop was organized by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) in collaboration with the African Union Commission and hosted by the Government of Ghana. UN-Water co-convened the workshop, which also served as an introduction to global monitoring and reporting and the 2017 integrated baseline process for SDG 6 for the African region.

During four intensive days, participants:

• took stock of the first round of regional water and sanitation reporting in the SDG era, using a newly developed platform, highlighting challenges and opportunities for the future
• learned about SDG 6 monitoring and reporting at the global level, including the SDG 6 global indicators and the 2017 integrated baseline process
• learned about the institutional experiences from Senegal and Uganda with integrated monitoring of SDG 6
• discussed harmonization in monitoring across national, regional and global levels, as well as across sectors and national stakeholders
• discussed how to build political support for monitoring and how to make it useful for policy
• discussed the concept of leave no one behind in regard to access to sanitation
• prepared for the next round of regional reporting as well as the first round of global SDG 6 reporting

Representatives of the UN agencies who are members of the UN-Water Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6 (and also custodians of the SDG 6 global indicators) discussed with countries about their plans for participating in the 2017 integrated baseline process, including their needs to technical and institutional support.