50 Years and Billions Spent: New Reporting Shows Universal Access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Draws Closer to Epic Goal Despite Global Pandemic
Join a special session with Ambassador Mark Green featuring groundbreaking reporting on one of the most stubborn challenges in human history—universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene.
Register here: https://engage.wilsoncenter.org/a/50-years-and-billions-spent?_ga=2.257362504.2142016265.1620277195-242578209.1620277195
Over the last half century a global galaxy of projects, programs, banks, philanthropies, government departments, idea centers, utilities, service companies, research groups, and consultancies devoted itself to one objective—providing every person on Earth clean water, sanitation, and hygiene. In 2020, many of the sector’s leaders worried that the COVID-19 pandemic would sidetrack investment and slow progress. But while the signs of a potential catastrophe were apparent, the actual effects of the pandemic in delivering water and sanitation to people who needed it were not nearly as dire as anticipated.
Decades of frontline experience provided the WASH sector keen understanding of the various components of their ecosystem—finance, governance, installation, management, operations, oversight—and how each influenced the other. In essence, the WASH community developed a set of approaches that simplified the complexity of what they were after. Achieving universal access to clean water and hygiene is reachable by 2030. Universal access to sanitation could come by mid-century.
Program
Opening Remarks:
- Ambassador Mark Green – President, Director, & CEO, Wilson Center
Framing Remarks:
- Maura Barry – Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Resilience and Food Security and interim Global Water Coordinator, U.S. Agency for International Development
Reporting Presentation:
- Keith Schneider – Senior Editor and Chief Correspondent, Circle of Blue
Panelists:
- Sheila Kibuthu – Communications Director, Sanergy
- Joel Kolker – Program Manager, Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership, World Bank
- Duncan McNicholl – Director and Co-founder, Uptime
- Tanvi Nagpal – Director, International Development Program, School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
- Keith Schneider – Senior Editor and Chief Correspondent, Circle of Blue
Closing Remarks:
- Peter Laugharn – President and Chief Executive Officer, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bobbinassar@gmail.com or bknotts@uua.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit
