Kathmandu, Nov 13 

The United Nations Water, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) will cease to exist as of 31 December 2020, when the organization will become the Sanitation and Hygiene Fund (SHF). It will have a new structure and operating model.

It is an investment mechanism with an operating model that has been designed to deliver sustainable impact at scale. The SHF has four strategic objectives: to scale up household sanitation and hygiene services; to address gaps in menstrual health and hygiene while promoting the empowerment of women and girls; to increase sustainable water, sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health and hygiene services in schools and health care facilities; and to support innovation towards safely managed sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health and hygiene. The Fund will be launched during an online event on November 17.

It is seeking US$2 billion over the coming five years to provide a 21st-century solution to the decades-old crisis on sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health, the SHF stated in a press note. Currently, more than 4 billion people globally do not have access to safely managed sanitation services. 3 billion lack access to basic handwashing facilities, and nearly 10 percent of the world’s population still practice open defecation. Many of the world’s most serious diseases and leading causes of child mortality are related directly to poor sanitation and hygiene.

Yet there has been considerable under-investment in this sector for many years, and this has hampered progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened existing inequalities as masks are too expensive or hard to find, and social distancing is impossible in many of the vulnerable communities. The lack of proper sanitation and hygiene adds to the risks to life and livelihood for the world’s most disadvantaged, threatening the foundations of economies and health security. Arguing the case for global investment in sanitation and hygiene will be Ms Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Other speakers include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo of Nigeria; Ms Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director; Ms Grete Faremo, Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Project Services; Mr Gilbert Houngbo, Chair of UN-Water and President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development; Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organization; and Dominic O’Neill, Executive Director of the Sanitation and Hygiene Fund.