Kaburu Anthony: Sustainable Development Goal 17: Strengthen the gl...

Kaburu Anthony: Sustainable Development Goal 17: Strengthen the gl...: As written, SDG No. 17: Strengthen and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development clearly refers to the U.N. process of ...

Kaburu Anthony: The time for talking is over: A call to Take Actio...

Kaburu Anthony: The time for talking is over: A call to Take Actio...: For the last 50 years, global warming has broken recorded history. The earth’s temperature is increasing by burning fossil fuels and cuttin...

Sustainable Development Goal 17: Strengthen the global partnership

As written, SDG No. 17: Strengthen and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development clearly refers to the U.N. process of developing the global sustainable development agenda. A process which stretches back to Johannesburg in 2002 and beyond, with the contribution of the Rio conference and the Rio+20 process and more. 

It recognizes that in addition to having a multi-stakeholder process for articulating goals and aspirations, which is important, there has to be effective implementation of change on the ground. Some lessons were learned during the implementation of the Millenium Development Goals, but the writers of these 17 new sustainable development goals know there is much more to be done, and with global warming, time is of the essence.

When it comes to making changes in how humans live in developing countries today, private business is a critical force shaping lives. Private firms are making massive inward investments to developing countries, providing goods such as soap, medicines, mobile phones, computers and services such as consultancy, accountancy and legal advice. And of course, there is the Internet. International and local companies are doing a huge amount for the development of poor countries through free market initiatives. 

However, their role in the sustainable development partnership is still pretty peripheral — it remains dominated by governments, NGOs, special identity groups and academics. While formally considered a stakeholder by the U.N. system, business does not have a presence in the partnership process commensurate with its power and influence on the ground.

This is in part business’ fault as it is such a diverse sector, both in size and focus of activities, multinational and local ownership. Consequently, effective representation and engagement is difficult and, indeed, many businesses are not interested in the SDGs anyhow. But the way the U.N. works makes it difficult to engage with business. It is a club of governments, some of which are pretty unappealing in terms of their policies and practices — but they still get into the club. 

Beyond the club membership, the U.N. invented the term "non-governmental organisation" (NGO) to categorize the non-profits and lobby group outsiders it had to deal with. It learned ways of bringing them to the discussion table because, like governments, they too serve the people. The NGOs and special interest groups serve them with a passion and dedication beyond many government agencies, but businesses are in the for-profit sector, and they therefore serve profit.

Consequently, business makes uncomfortable bedfellows for many in the U.N.’s traditional stakeholder groupings. Indeed, business is seen as the cause of many of the world’s problems, not the agents of socio-economic justice and environmental sustainability the Sustainable Development Goals want so passionately to promote.

An uneasy alliance

Nevertheless, the situation is steadily changing. Whereas the Millennium Development Goals were very government-orientated, these 17 new goals — which have employment, economic development and consumption issues at their core — need the private sector to be a full-on active partner. The U.N., like most international development agencies, is having to understand and work with the for-profit sector.

 After all, the multinational companies in the Fortune Global 500 have annual cash value-added figures well in excess of the GDP of most developing countries while at the same time touching the lives of millions of people throughout their value chains. They are the agencies integrating our global economy and have immense technical and people resources to be deployed in the social, economic and environmental fields.

Until the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the Cold War, the senior levels of the U.N. did not talk to companies about global issues. There was some engagement on issues such as agricultural development and through agencies such as the ILO. But basically companies remained the capitalist exploiters, multi-nationals in particular, and dialogue was taboo. However, today’s rising multinationals are all from former communist countries such as China and Russia and socialistic countries such as India and Brazil. Consequently, the U.S. and Western domination of the Fortune 500 list is waning. 

Former U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan realized that you could not have development without the private sector, and reached out to the business community by setting up the U.N. Global Compact. In addition, U.N. agencies as diverse as UNDP and UNICEF have made real strides in working with companies on a wide range of issues and in different forms of partnership: from sponsorships to policy development and international standard-setting.

Another limit on the engagement of companies is that the primary focus of the 17 Goals is the poorest of the poor, and for profit companies don’t relate well to the desperately poor. Through their value chains some companies such as Unilever can provide a family with all its weekly needs for personal and family washing in Bangladesh for the price of one Coca-Cola; while Mondelez buys about a quarter of Ghana’s cocoa crop, supporting the incomes of over 200,000 small farmers.  However, the poorest find it hard to become employees or customers of big companies such as Mercedes Benz, Glaxo and Microsoft.

However, the investment and training commitments that all companies of substance make genuinely help develop the working, middle and even elements of an upper class in developing countries. All developing countries need the social, economic and organizational skills of these groupings, as they seek to develop an economy and an accountable political system.

A focus on the poorest of the poor often overlooks these nation-building investments, but they are as vital as the investment in universities and schools. Indeed, Unilever was once described as the best business school in India due to all the senior executives who had served there and were now running other, often local, companies.

The massive garment industry of Bangladesh today began with the investment of the Daewoo corporation of South Korea in one local plant. Many managers left and started their own businesses; no single development agency was involved in the growth of this industry, which now contributes over half of Bangladesh’s foreign earnings and provides well over a million jobs.

Delivering on aspirations

Big international companies are some of the world’s greatest problem-solvers. They can get oil from deep seas and take a baby sweet corn from the field in Kenya and have it on a supermarket shelf in London within 30 hours, complete with all hygiene checks and a correct bar code. The slums of Brazil have cable TV but don’t have running water and sanitation.

International companies are high focussed, performance-driven and disciplined global organizations. They take aspirations and turn them into facts on the ground, constantly monitoring and measuring performance in order to gain efficiency and ensure success. The 17 SDGs are all high-level aspirations and someone has to turn them into practical realities based on feedback gained from constantly measuring success.

A few companies will check their total business profile and value chain impact against the list of 17 SDG goals but most will focus on a few issues that are close to the business and get involved in doing something about them. Sometimes this will be through business activities, particularly in the value chain where large companies are most likely to interface with poor people.

At other times it will be through community outreach projects, often in partnership with non-profits and charities. In many respects the 17 SDGs are high-minded aspirations and companies will be most engaged in turning them into practical action on the ground.

In a previous generation, companies faced many problems identified in the SDGs when they did business in developing countries. What they did was to integrate them into the business and solve them for their employees and their families. They created corporate services that ensured well-housed, healthy, educated workers, with access to clean water and other services needed for a productive life for themselves and their families.

Companies such as Tata in India can be very proud of what they achieved in this respect. But these corporate welfare states are dying out rapidly. In part, due to the way business is conducted today, the costs involved, and also because paternalism is not a good thing. It is better to meet these social challenges through constructive partnerships with company stakeholders and the wider society. This shares costs and builds capacity in society.

At first sight, the 17 SDGs were a bit of a laundry list of good works to be done, but they do set global priorities and give companies a reference point when deciding how to develop their business and make a wider social contribution.

Companies also have a way of assessing their wider impact on human and environmental issues of importance and a benchmark by which to judge their net contribution to global development. In turn, they can show how to develop certain aspirations into real progress on the ground.

Although they are capable of doing much themselves, they will need partners, too. That is a real opportunity to take the partnership agenda beyond high aspirations to practical reality. There is still much to be done to develop the craft of practical partnership and all potential partners have much to learn, business included.

Looking ahead, it’s so important that we all understand how multi-stakeholder partnerships can serve as vehicles for mobilizing and sharing knowledge, expertise, technologies and financial resources to support the achievement of the SDGs. It is already an imperative and will become increasingly inherent that everyone, not just those within the philanthropic space, realize their role in addressing the SDGs and making the world a better place for everyone.

Kaburu Anthony: The time for talking is over: A call to Take Actio...

Kaburu Anthony: The time for talking is over: A call to Take Actio...: For the last 50 years, global warming has broken recorded history. The earth’s temperature is increasing by burning fossil fuels and cuttin...

The time for talking is over: A call to Take Action on Climate Change

For the last 50 years, global warming has broken recorded history. The earth’s temperature is increasing by burning fossil fuels and cutting down rain forests. This adds an excessive amount of greenhouse gases like methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide naturally occur in the atmosphere are increasing temperatures. CO2 is the greenhouse gas most commonly produced by human activities and it is responsible of global warming.

Climate change and the heightened severity of weather events will cause increased loss of human life, more frequent crop failure, and more displaced people. This will destabilize governments, increase the risk of conflict, and hurt the global economy. Meanwhile, human health is already jeopardized by air and water conditions around the globe.

Human-generated climate change is causing adverse health effects through multiple direct pathways (e.g. heatwaves, sea-level rise, storm frequency and intensity) and indirect pathways (e.g. food and water insecurity, social instability).

A recent report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that current trends will take the world past the 1.5 °C goal in only a few decades. The difference between a 1.5 °C world and a 2 °C world (not to speak of a 3 °C world) is stark.

An extra half degree of warming is likely to mean food scarcity and sea level rise affecting millions more people and severe habitat loss for countless species around the globe. Current trends need not continue: reforestation, escalated deployment of renewable energy, and more sustainable patterns of diet and transportation could eliminate carbon emissions by 2050. It’s past time for an unprecedented mass movement worldwide to demand action from recalcitrant governments. The clock keeps ticking.

Climate change threatens the huge amount of progress made on health and development in the past half century; it threatens to reverse the gains made through the Millennium Development Goals; and it threatens to undermine any efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals – health related or otherwise.

The World Health Organization already predicts that between 2030 and 2050, climate change will cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress. The direct costs to health from climate change, excluding costs in health-determining sectors such as agriculture and water and sanitation, is estimated to be between US$2–4 billion per year by 2030.

I believe we need to think about “health justice”, to ensure that ordinary people are always at the heart of health policy and that their needs are paramount above the profit motives of industry or the short-term calculations of politicians.

I have endeavored to spend my life in the service of those marginalized or made vulnerable by discrimination because of gender, race or poverty and it is clearly a grave health injustice when poor women and their newborn babies are detained in hospitals because their families can’t afford their medical bills.

But this is the reality for thousands of people in health systems dominated by private financing and weak governance. It is urgent to recognize that we are in an unprecedented emergency and to form new and global alliances in favor of humanity and common destiny to stop this saga of greed and irresponsibility. Greed and fear cannot become the deciding elements of the political progress.

Both climate and health policies need to understand the specific needs of vulnerable and marginalised groups who have been too often overlooked, including women, girls, adolescents, people with mental health issues, indigenous peoples, sexual minorities and nomadic communities.

Back to climate change; Climate change affects every person globally. It will change the way we live, work, travel, shop, eat and socialize. Planning for it, and making the changes that are necessary to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, while maintaining vibrant rural and urban communities, is all of our responsibility.

Effective climate action will require much stronger participatory democracy, where local people are actively informed and engaged in decision-making about their own communities and their own futures. People have to believe their input matters and, importantly, they must be able to trust governments and businesses to act in the public interest.

To have an impact, climate action must, therefore, have both bold political leadership and respect for democratic participation. Political will is largely underpinned by economic concerns – national governments need to realize that climate change is a global economic concern.

Government leaders need to stop twiddling their thumbs at COPs while the planet overheats. It is time to knuckle down and agree to a global plan to cut the greenhouse gases causing climate change and build our resilience to climate change impacts.

In addition to action at every level of economies, societies and governments around the world, we still need a global agreement between nations. Without the UN, some governments could just walk away from the problem. Without the UN, how will nations decide which country should do what in a way that is fair to all? We need a UN forum to check that countries’ climate plans are adequate to the scale of the challenge.

All of us here  also have the responsibility to put pressure on leaders to take climate and health seriously, to see them as human rights issues that are inextricably intertwined, and to make these leaders understand that if they do not act in concert with each other, they are damning us all to failure, if not annihilation.

Let’s fight for our dignity and our right to a livable world. As we go forward today, let us all take heart and work together for a world where everyone enjoys the right to health, a thriving environment and a peaceful planet to bequeath to subsequent generations.

Finally, this alarming climate change situation is a call for action to all of us for playing a positive role in our own limited capacities, as this is our planet and we must take its good care for ourselves and the generations to come. Remember: no one can do this alone, but together, we have a chance to save our only planet Earth. I call on all of us to elevate climate change in our conversations with clients, industry partners, and elected officials. Add your firm to our Call to Action. We are equal to the task. But we must not wait.

Kaburu Anthony: Why Do We Need to Build Sustainable Cities?

Kaburu Anthony: Why Do We Need to Build Sustainable Cities?: Today’s cities are finding it hard to be both livable and economically strong. Not one has truly balanced people, profit, and the planet, e...

Why Do We Need to Build Sustainable Cities?

Today’s cities are finding it hard to be both livable and economically strong. Not one has truly balanced people, profit, and the planet, every so often; I find it important to reset and to re-envision what a successful future looks like.

Sustainable Cities generally refers to achieving a balance among the environmental, economic, and social pillars of sustainability. Communities are the smaller pockets of cities, therefore creating sustainable communities can lead to sustainable, thriving cities.

This article seeks to take a step back and revisit the fundamentals of what the building of a sustainable city requires. The footprint of cities is a heavy contributor to the un-sustainability of life on the planet; each city takes much more than its total land area to support the population that lives, works, and plays there.

It’s a mind boggling fact that over half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and this number will increase to about two thirds of the world’s population by 2050. That means that today, 3.9 billion people are living in cities, and that number will continue to rise exponentially.

Tokyo, Japan is today’s most populous city, with 38 million dwellers; followed by Delhi, India with a population of 25 million people and expected to grow to 36 million by 2030. In the U.S., 81% of the populations of 320 million live in urban areas or suburbs.

The Ideal City

For most people, the impetus to work for a more sustainable city stems from the desire to live in a more beautiful and live-able city for themselves and their children, or from the worry that the next natural disaster will wipe current infrastructure and systems.

The ideal city would be cleaner, quieter, safer, more accessible, and healthier. Cleaner cities would have less trash and less pollution than current systems allow for. Quieter cities would have less noise from cars and a more organized sense of the urban chaos that city dwellers love. Safer cities would be well lit, well patrolled, and have a strong sense of community.

Well accessible and sustainable cities would make public transportation the cheapest and easiest option for travel, negating the need for cars and the congestion and pollution they bring. Bike access and priority is also a cornerstone of the ideal sustainable city. Finally, the ideal city makes health and sanitation systems a priority, and would do so by making health care easily accessible, as well as fresh food, access to recreation, and top-notch sewer and waste services.

The View from Main Street

Although many of us may have a vision for the city that we want to live in, I think it’s safe to say that few of us feel as empowered as we’d like to in the process of change-making. This stems from a root system of problems, not from one single source that we would be able to identify and target with a panacea.

 Although many city residents may think that our cities are moving slowly into the future, and are lagging behind the private sector in terms of innovation and embracing technology, it’s important to keep in mind the challenges and barriers that cities must take into account when planning for change.

When cities implement new programs, they’re putting taxpayer money at stake, and thus are less incentivized to take risks that may lead to innovation or breakthrough in old systems. City governments have a wide array of stakeholders to consider, and many stakeholder groups have different needs and wants from city services.

Even so, considering the hurdles, there are a distinct set of barriers to implementing sustainable practices, systems, and economies that most cities are facing.

The broad and short list includes the following:

·         city budgeting is often focused on the short-term, while planning for sustainability requires long term thinking

·         city zoning laws and other regulations do not allow for sustainable development or necessary urban infill

·         citizens are disengaged in civic processes and from their neighborhoods

·         there is not adequate demand for sustainable business practices, products, or services to create a thriving green economy

·         city departments are siloed in the planning process (so that housing does not communicate with transportation on major projects)

·          

Where’s the Fast Lane to Change?

As impassioned citizens, we tend to argue the case for the one project or the plan that addresses what we see that we need to build a sustainable city, but the reality is that we need to push from many different angles at once. The most basic premise for change starts at the roots of a city, with its people’s will for change, and in conversation.

The level on top of this grassroots communication requires that citizens have access to the channels that feed their information to city officials who can continue the conversation at the city and policy level. The disconnect happens between these two tiers, creating blind spots in both policy making and citizen conversations, and rendering outreach efforts by city governments fruitless, for lack of clear channels of engagement between the two groups.

A handful of new apps are popping up to fill this gap in communication, and will hopefully encourage civic engagement in this digital age. The worry is that all city dwellers are not on the same wave of technology, and so whole demographic groups and even neighborhoods are left out of these technology-based conversations.

Assuming that we’re on track (and we are) for creating positive and inclusive sustainable change in our cities, and recognizing that dialogue between city governments and city dwellers is a key factor in the equation; what are the overarching stretch goals that these conversations should be considering?

To keep it purely scientific, with the goal of decarbonizing city economies and cities by 2050 (which is what we need to do globally to avoid major consequences of climate change), we need to do the following:

·         Create land-use legislation that will smartly raise density, and will increase access to amenities, shopping, and employment within cities

·         Make urban areas more self-reliant for food, power, and water

·         Create multiple options for recycling, reuse, and remanufacturing of materials, along with skilled tradespeople for those activities

·         Make urban areas accessible by car-free mobility; invest in viable alternatives for walking, biking, and public transportation

These necessary changes don’t sound easy, and there’s clearly no single answer to the question of what we need to build sustainable cities (and soon). What is clear, however, is that cities are reliant upon their most plentiful resource: their citizens, to be key drivers and engaged ambassadors of the change process. Systems-change is necessarily iterative and collaborative, and human systems are no exception; we’re all in this together.

Finally, for any of these challenges to be addressed – and potentially overcome – it is vital that cities take a leadership role to ensure that the needs of their stakeholders are fulfilled. New and engaged partnerships must be formed, including direct interaction with industry, and communication in the digital age should provide a platform for increased levels of co-operation and education on a much wider scale.

Along with leadership must come accountability, especially if civic leaders are to engage with their communities to find and enact mutually-beneficial solutions to their growing challenges and problems. Leaders will need to address a myriad of sensitive social issues – social cohesion, poverty, aging populations, the obesity and mental health crises, immigration, multi-culturalism, discrimination, and growing racism and xenophobia – alongside the provision of infrastructure and services.  

Accountability can take many forms and these are all vital if we are to successfully deliver sustainability in our cities. Creating sustainable cities won’t be easy – but with a positive attitude, the right vision and approach, it can be done. We need to start making changes now. We need to create sustainable cities that nurture a resilient way of life.

Kaburu Anthony: Why We Need Decentralized Renewable Energy to Powe...

Kaburu Anthony: Why We Need Decentralized Renewable Energy to Powe...: Today, 1.3 billion people still live without access to electricity and 3 billion have no access to clean cooking fuels. As the energy secto...

Why We Need Decentralized Renewable Energy to Power the World

Today, 1.3 billion people still live without access to electricity and 3 billion have no access to clean cooking fuels. As the energy sector is transforming, there is a growing consensus that sustainable energy is a catalyst for achieving most Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): it is crucial for better health, education, jobs, food production and conservation, as well as water use and quality.

 Access to energy

Access to energy is not just an end in itself. It is also a stepping stone to overcome two major challenges the world is facing:

·         mitigating climate change and degradation of natural resources

·         ensuring that all people everywhere are able to take charge of their own lives in inclusive and open societies

Where does energy come into the picture?

Traditionally, having access to energy often meant you had to live near a power grid or rely on diesel and kerosene or firewood. But the urgency of combating climate change, combined with technological advances and significant price reductions, has rapidly increased the availability and affordability of renewable energy.

In addition, the move from centralized power distribution to decentralized off-grid and mini-grid systems powered by renewables is gaining strength. This would make much more energy available for disadvantaged communities and remote areas.

To move forward, policies must become more supportive while energy finance needs to fundamentally change. Currently, the main problem is not a lack of finance, but how finance flows – mainly to on-grid systems in higher income countries – while the greatest need is for off-grid systems in lower income areas.

Sumba: a frontrunner example of energy transition

The Indonesian island of Sumba is a frontrunner example of an ambitious and innovative energy transition, and it has since become living proof that decentralized sustainable energy systems positively affect green, inclusive growth. This initiative succeeded thanks to its multi-stakeholder approach with governments (local and national), private sector, and community-based organizations closely working together. 

Through decentralized mini-grid and off-grid solutions, the project has provided energy access for more people than ever before. In addition, Sumba stands as an inspiring example for local citizens and the Indonesian government of the opportunities renewable energy brings.

Leaving no one behind

Transitioning to decentralized energy systems will be one of the key success factors for achieving SDG7 before 2030. If we want to create sustainable and resilient societies, we have to focus on the millions that still lack even basic energy services, while also drawing attention to the current inequalities in global energy systems. In particular, we must empower women and youth to become entrepreneurs in the green energy transition.

Working alongside local partners on the ground, we can make sure that future energy systems are developed with the end-user in mind. This means creating more enabling environments for energy entrepreneurship and channeling both public and private finance into decentralized solutions for low-income communities and remote rural areas.

In countries such as Kenya and Nepal, the government has already successfully implemented financial pay-as-you-go models with personalized repayment schemes. Yet these best practices need to materialize faster and on a much larger scale if we are serious about leaving no one behind.

Multi–stakeholder partnerships

Another decisive component for universal energy access is the presence of multi-stakeholder initiatives. Without partnerships, the transition will struggle to pick up speed.

Equally important is the interlinkage with other SDGs. Energy access is also vital for sustainable production, resilient water resources and inclusive cities. Providing energy for households, communities and workplaces forms the basis of thriving societies.

With great progress in many countries worldwide, there is good reason to be optimistic. Now, we must stress the continued need for enabling policies and investment in decentralized renewable energy solutions to complement grid systems and bring everyone along in the green energy transition.

Kaburu Anthony: Situation of children’s right to education worldwi...

Kaburu Anthony: Situation of children’s right to education worldwi...: Today, education remains an inaccessible right for millions of children around the world. More than 72 million children of primary educatio...

Situation of children’s right to education worldwide

Today, education remains an inaccessible right for millions of children around the world. More than 72 million children of primary education age are not in school and 759 million adults are illiterate and do not have the awareness necessary to improve both their living conditions and those of their children.

Causes of lack of education

Marginalization and poverty

For many children who still do not have access to education, it is notable because of persisting inequality and marginalization.

In developing and developed countries alike, children do not have access to basic education because of inequalities that originate in sex, health and cultural identity (ethnic origin, language, religion). These children find themselves on the margins of the education system and do not benefit from learning that is vital to their intellectual and social development.

Factors linked to poverty such as unemployment, illness and the illiteracy of parents, multiply the risk of non-schooling and the drop-out rate of a child by 2. Undeniably, many children from disadvantaged backgrounds are forced to abandon their education due to health problems related to malnutrition or in order to work and provide support for the family.

Financial deficit of developing countries

Universal primary education is a major issue and a sizeable problem for many states. Many emerging countries do not appropriate the financial resources necessary to create schools, provide schooling materials, nor recruit and train teachers. Funds pledged by the international community are generally not sufficient enough to allow countries to establish an education system for all children.

Equally, a lack of financial resources has an effect on the quality of teaching. Teachers do not benefit from basic teacher training and schools, of which there are not enough, have oversized classes.

This overflow leads to classes where many different educational levels are forced together which does not allow each individual child to benefit from an education adapted to their needs and abilities. As a result, the drop-out rate and education failure remain high.

Overview of the right to education worldwide

Most affected regions.

As a result of poverty and marginalization, more than 72 million children around the world remain unschooled.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected area with over 32 million children of primary school age remaining uneducated. Central and Eastern Asia, as well as the Pacific, are also severely affected by this problem with more than 27 million uneducated children.

Additionally, these regions must also solve continuing problems of educational poverty (a child in education for less than 4 years) and extreme educational poverty (a child in education for less than 2 years).

Essentially this concerns Sub-Saharan Africa where more than half of children receive an education for less than 4 years. In certain countries, such as Somalia and Burkina Faso, more than 50% of children receive an education for a period less than 2 years.

The lack of schooling and poor education has negative effects on the population and country.  The children leave school without having acquired the basics, which greatly impedes the social and economic development of these countries.

Inequality between girls and boys: the education of girls in jeopardy

Today, it is girls who have the least access to education. They make up more than 54% of the non-schooled population in the world.

This problem occurs most frequently in the Arab States, in central Asia and in Southern and Western Asia and is principally explained by the cultural and traditional privileged treatment given to males. Girls are destined to work in the family home, whereas boys are entitled to receive an education.

In sub-Saharan Africa, over 12 million girls are at risk of never receiving an education. In Yemen, it is more than 80% of girls who will never have the opportunity to go to school. Even more alarming, certain countries such as Afghanistan or Somalia make no effort to reduce the gap between girls and boys with regard to education.

Although many developing countries may congratulate themselves on dramatically reducing inequality between girls and boys in education, a lot of effort is still needed in order to achieve a universal primary education.

Kaburu Anthony: Sustainable Agriculture is the Key to Ending Hunge...

Kaburu Anthony: Sustainable Agriculture is the Key to Ending Hunge...: Think of eight people you know. One of them may go to bed hungry tonight. Not surprisingly, about 98% of hungry people live in developing c...

Sustainable Agriculture is the Key to Ending Hunger

Think of eight people you know. One of them may go to bed hungry tonight. Not surprisingly, about 98% of hungry people live in developing countries and the crisis will likely get worse. The alarming signs of increasing food insecurity and high levels of different forms of malnutrition are a clear warning that there is considerable work to be done to make sure we 'leave no one behind' on the road towards achieving the SDG goals on food security and improved nutrition.

Ending world hunger is a complicated goal. The conditions to reach it appear in the fully-worded United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2: “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.” Ending hunger means not only achieving food security — or the availability, access to and use of food — but also improving nutrition; calories alone aren’t enough.

This can only occur through the promotion and adoption of sustainable agriculture in the form of a food production and delivery system that meets society’s needs in the present without compromising the needs of future generations.

Sustainable agriculture embraces the environmental, economic and social conditions that challenge food security. By taking a whole systems approach, agriculture, when done sustainably, has the potential to relieve hunger and create lasting change.

How Big is World Hunger?

The current world population of 7.3 billion is expected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050. Today, nearly 800 million people, or one in nine, are undernourished. By 2050, that number could grow by two billion. Most of the world’s hungry live in developing countries, where 13 percent of people face undernourishment. Asia faces the greatest hunger burden, with two-thirds of its population suffering from undernourishment. In Sub-Saharan Africa, one in four people experience the same lack of food and vital nutrients.

Hunger and malnutrition hit the hardest among the most vulnerable population: children. In the first 1,000 days of life, from gestation to a child’s second birthday, malnourished children suffer irreparable loss in brain development. Poor nutrition causes nearly half of all deaths in children under five. It hurts their ability to learn and grow, as shown by the one in four children who experience stunting worldwide. In developing countries, that proportion can rise to one in three. In Africa, among the primary school-age children who manage to attend school, 66 million attend classes hungry.

Extreme hunger and malnutrition inhibit sustainable development and create a trap that cannot easily be escaped. Adults who suffer from undernourishment as children grow up facing lifelong health challenges and find themselves more prone to disease. They often struggle to earn a living or improve their agricultural productivity because of two main conditions: hunger and malnutrition.

 Nutrition-sensitive agriculture, which maximizes investment in agriculture that improves nutrition, holds the key to solving both. That means saying goodbye to agriculture that only supports homogenous diets of nutrient-poor, staple foods and welcoming more diverse diets. By growing, consuming and selling more diverse crops, especially during off seasons, farmers diversify their incomes, which allows them to buy and consume more nutritious food.

Progress in the Fight to End Hunger

Part of the Millennium Development Goal 1 – to halve the number of hungry people, or reduce it to below 5 percent, from 1990 to 2015 —made significant progress, despite major population growth. By 2015, when monitoring of the Millennium Development Goals ended, 72 of 129 countries reached the goal. Developing regions decreased their share of undernourished people from 23 to 13 percent, and the world now has 218 million fewer people suffering from undernourishment than it did 25 years ago.

Much of that result has to do with agriculture. As the single largest employer in the world, agriculture provides livelihoods for 40 percent of today’s global population. It’s the largest source of income for poor, rural households. In fact, 500 million small farms provide up to 80 percent of the food consumed in a large part of the developing world.

Most farmers’ fields are rain-fed, meaning their crops rely solely on rainfall. Without irrigation systems, they face serious risks due to unpredictable weather patterns. For this and many other reasons, investing in technology for smallholder farmers helps ensure food security for the poorest populations and consistent food production for local and global markets. Setting appropriate policy environments, catalyzing private investment to make markets more effective and making agricultural improvements sustainable together can help end world hunger.

Women farmers typically have less land to farm and probably don't own that land. They own fewer farm animals and have less access to improved seeds. In addition, they have lower education levels than men and are less likely to get credit or insurance.

In fact, if women farmers were on the same playing field as their male counterparts, the the number of hungry people in the world would be reduced by up to 17%. So how do we level that playing field? We need to connect the unconnected.

This is simply organizing farmers -- connecting them to each other, to supply chains and then to markets. But it goes deeper than traditional community development. Communities have to become engaged in a journey of personal transformation as individuals, families and villages. For success to be solid, there must be harmony that connects and heals the psychological and social effects of generations of poverty and hunger.

Today, the turning point in agriculture is sustainability. But how do we strengthen agricultural markets and food systems to boost economic progress and deliver on the promise of improved diets for all? The key lies with sustainable, nutrition-sensitive agriculture. When working so hard to produce more food, smallholder farmers should also be nourishing their families.

Finally, the world has made incredible progress towards ending world hunger. But we still have a long way to go, if we want to solve the problem, we first have to target the people who produce the food and create a surplus that can be sold or provided to other hungry people.

Next, we focus on the women. There are 600 million small farmers and herders in the world, but one of the key reasons there are so many hungry people is because nearly more than a half of those farmers are not women. Even though they are as equally capable as male farmers, these women face challenges that cause them to grow less food.

Working faster and bigger has to be our ultimate goal so that the small farmers of today can be fed and can prepare for the rapidly growing population. Success will depend on deeply embedded social engagement on the part of those farmers. And, on our part, to connect with them in ways that are supportive, patient and ultimately highly productive.

Ending world hunger can be done.

Kaburu Anthony: Gender Equality for Sustainable Development

Kaburu Anthony: Gender Equality for Sustainable Development: Gender equity occurs when people of all genders are treated fairly in accordance with their needs. This is relatively hard to accomplish in...

Gender Equality for Sustainable Development

Gender equity occurs when people of all genders are treated fairly in accordance with their needs. This is relatively hard to accomplish in a society where inequities in relation to gender still exist. These inequities stem from a variety of systems in place that discriminate based on gender due to the prevalence of patriarchal societies, that is, a society where a male-identifying person acts as the dominant authority. These inequities prevent people from accessing and obtaining resources, opportunities, and even rights.

Policies that reinforce inequities include not allowing women to vote, disallowing men from taking childcare leave, or denying transgender people access to a bathroom.  In today's society, the views on gender are upheld by a system of gender norms, rules or expectations created by society that tell humans they need to act a certain way because of their gender. 

For instance, looking at gender in a binary view, there is a rigid idea that male identifying people must be masculine (i.e. muscular physically and hard emotionally) and there is a rigid idea that female identifying people must be feminine (i.e. soft emotionally and thin physically). These ideas are gender norms which have been ingrained into society through the stigmas placed around the jobs and educational paths different genders tend to take (i.e. construction is seen as a job for someone who identifies as male and childcare is seen as a job for someone who identifies as female). 

These gender norms have resulted in biases ingrained into society about people of certain genders who attempt to enter fields of work in which their gender identity does not match the gender identity usually associated with that field of work.

Equality of opportunity between men and women is a key indicator of long-term social stability and economic prosperity. However, women still remain under-represented at work places, and strikingly so at the most senior levels; women only occupy 14% of senior executive positions globally.

To build a sustainable future, people of all genders must be included in solutions and decision-making for improved, economic, social, and environmental well-being. Education is the key to understanding sustainability and ensuring that people all over the world follow and push for sustainable practices. 

Changes are slowly being made to create equitable opportunities for both men and women in that educators around the world are starting to focus on gender equity in their courses; however, it takes more than that to change society's perceptions of gender and achieve gender equality.

Gender equality is crucial for every country and every society in the world. Moreover, it is a precondition for sustainable development. There is a space reserved on the garbage heap of history for discrimination of women and girls. It belongs there along with racism and slavery.

For governments, gender equality is not a policy option – it is a human right. For sustainable development, gender equality is the smartest tool available. Who doesn’t want to be on the right side – and the smart side – of history?

Women’s full and equal participation in all aspects of life benefits society as a whole. It drives economic growth and sustainable development. Failure to promote women’s participation in paid work is wasting half of humanity’s skills and capacity. No country can justify or afford that. However, we still live in a world where women find it difficult to enter the labor market, the business sector and politics. A world where women have less control over resources than men do.

Where women have a greater workload in the family than men do. We must get rid of all the factors that restrict women’s participation in the economic sphere. These include restrictions on women’s property rights and access to finance.

It is time to move from rhetoric to concrete policies. Quality education for all girls and boys is crucial if women are to hold political and economic power on an equal footing with men. Sadly, we live in a world where violence against women is still an issue in every country.

If we want equality between women and men in the family and in work life, we must also strengthen the role of fathers.  Men should also make use of their right to parental leave when they become fathers.

Men must also be part of the solution. They too must speak out against all forms of violence against women everywhere. The globe should move quite rapidly from poverty to prosperity. Gender equality must be an essential part of this progress.

Many countries still has a lot of work to do to achieve SDG 5 on gender equality. At the same time, we also need to remember that the world today is ridden with conflicts. Women’s contributions are essential for building resilience, for preventing and resolving conflicts, and for sustaining peace. 

There is a clear obligation rooted in #UnitedNations Security Council resolutions when it comes to women’s participation in peace and security matters. They are positive trends; we see that girls across the world are speaking up against outdated gender roles that hold them back. There is also growing awareness that all societies need to employ the best heads and hands in their development process – regardless of gender.

In conclusion – Important elements that create lasting change include breaking the cycle of poverty (in that, women form a higher percentage of the 1.5 billion people living below the poverty line than men), investing in education, promoting women's health, and ultimately transforming perceptions of gender in the form of challenging gender norms is urgently necessary.

It is grounded in human rights and in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Gender equality is the way forward. Again, this is not an option.  There can be no excuse for not achieving gender equality by 2030. If we are able to accomplish these things, we can support gender equity and move faster towards a sustainable future. 

Kaburu Anthony: International Day Commemorating the Victims of Act...

Kaburu Anthony: International Day Commemorating the Victims of Act...: The past decade has witnessed a sharp increase in violent sectarian or religious tensions. These range from Islamic extremists waging globa...

International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief: “COMES AT AN IMPORTANT TIME“

The past decade has witnessed a sharp increase in violent sectarian or religious tensions. These range from Islamic extremists waging global jihad and power struggles between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the Middle East to the persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar and outbreaks of violence between Christians and Muslims across Africa.

Freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental human right - and no one should suffer violence or discrimination on the basis of religion or belief. Attacks based on religion are attacks on religious freedom, for many of our neighbors at home and abroad, more than their freedom to worship is at stake; their very existence is being threatened based solely on their faith.

The U.N. General Assembly recently adopted a resolution designating August 22 as the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief. The resolution expresses concern at “continuing acts of intolerance and violence based on religion or belief against individuals, including against persons belonging to religious communities and minorities. It reiterates that “terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations cannot and should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilization or ethnic group.

This resolution comes at an important time – perhaps even a crossroads – in international religious freedom. This day will honor victims and survivors from all religions who “too often remain forgotten” and seeks “to raise awareness of the importance of respectful religious diversity and inclusion. As globally witnessed, the state of religious liberty for religious minorities in many parts of the world appears to be declining.

Efforts like this ‘International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief’ are important signs of solidarity. We all have a role to play as upstanders, calling out religious bigotry and denouncing violence based on religion whenever we see it.

Religious leaders, groups and the interfaith community could usefully get more proactive about peace-making and become more literate with new technologies, not least social media, finding ways to promote positive values both on- and offline. This is because signals and symbols of collective action across religious divides are needed more than ever in our disorderly and fractured world.

I hope that today’s  international day of commemoration will encourage governments to stand by those who are persecuted because of their faith and  help raise awareness concerning the plight of Christians and other religious minorities who are persecuted and denied fundamental rights.

All people have the right to freely choose and live out their faith. Nobody should be persecuted because of their faith. Governments that value freedom need to speak with one voice, and strongly, affirming their commitment to religious liberty for all.

I urge all governments to uphold this fundamental right and protect minorities. I also urge the #UnitedNations, the international community, and leaders of each country to use this resolution as a foundation to bring about real change and to move beyond awareness to impacting the lives of vulnerable religious individuals

Kaburu Anthony: Global Efforts to Tackle Poverty and Climate Chang...

Kaburu Anthony: Global Efforts to Tackle Poverty and Climate Chang...: Today, the issue of extreme poverty and climate change needs mass advocacy and action more than any other. Although the past decade has see...

Global Efforts to Tackle Poverty and Climate Change Must Come Together

Today, the issue of extreme poverty and climate change needs mass advocacy and action more than any other. Although the past decade has seen the most successful anti-poverty push in human history, life remains bleak for hundreds of millions of people affected by climate change. The challenges of education, disease, poor sanitation and gender discrimination still weigh heavily. Additionally, the increase in wealth inequality threatens to ignite new waves of social upheaval.

The global population is racing toward 9 billion people in 2050, with nearly 3 billion expected to join the middle class in the next two decades. Meanwhile, 1.3 billion people are still trapped in extreme poverty ($1.25 per day), with another billion hovering on the brink (between $1.25 and $2.00). Countries will need to make an even deeper commitment to achieve the ambitious goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030.

The urgency of the climate challenge is likewise becoming clearer. Global emissions are on the rise. Climate impacts are no longer a distant threat. They have already arrived. The current decade is the hottest on record.

The world is experiencing deadly heatwaves, new diseases, and food price spikes that can be linked to climate change. People in already vulnerable living conditions will be hit hardest. People are suffering due to climate change impacts on a daily basis, and as the severity of impacts increases, so does the number of those affected.

This year alone we have seen several devastating floods, raging wildfires, dying coral reefs, record Arctic sea ice melt, and record sea level rise. All of these events affected and are affecting humans worldwide, sometime directly and sometimes in more subtle ways. However, they do disproportionately affect poor and disenfranchised people worldwide.

Both reducing climate change impacts and poverty are two of the defining issues of the 21st century in trying to achieve sustainable development; they are also intrinsically linked. Furthermore, limited opportunities and disenfranchisement based on age, gender, or ethnicity, amongst others, can aggravate people’s vulnerability and marginalise them further.

The multiple dimensions of inequality add another layer of complexity to the already wickedly complicated task that is managing climate risks. However, failing to account for inequalities and their interlinkages with climate change can lead to their reinforcement and exacerbation.

The relationship between climate change and poverty

Currently climate change acts as a main barrier for the eradication of poverty, it is an important factor in keeping or bringing households to poverty. One example would be climate-related disasters like floods, which can be life threatening and also highly destructive, robbing people of homes and the few assets they have. Since people living in poverty usually have assets of very low quality and tend to not have savings, or only very few, recovery from disasters can be brutal.

Other instances include droughts, which not only lead to crop losses but also to spikes in food prices. Since many poor people depend on agricultural income, this leads to a vicious circle in which their income is decimated due to droughts affecting their crop yields and people not being able to buy food due to rising prices.

However, there is also a much bigger, structural, issue: poor people are often pushed to settle in at risk areas. There are different reasons for this, for example, coastal areas tend to offer larger labour markets which attract poorer populations in search of opportunities, in other places land availability and housing prices push people into risky areas like steep slopes and riverbanks. This significantly contributes to the disproportionate climate and weather exposure of people living in poverty.

Inclusive and climate-informed development & adaptation are key

In the coming decade climate policies are unlikely to alter the amount of climate change, so it will be of utmost importance to prioritise the reduction of vulnerability of poor populations. A recent World Bank report found that while development and adaptation will not prevent all climate change impacts, by 2030 they could prevent most of its effects on poverty.

To achieve that, development will have to be rapid and inclusive, this includes providing social safety nets and universal health coverage. Investments in this regard will have to take into account climate risks so as to avoid creating new vulnerabilities, and climate change adaptation will have to accompany these efforts in a targeted manner. Meaningful and sustainable actions will only be achieved if they take into account poverty and other inequalities.

The links between poverty, development, and climate change are clear and unavoidable. Achievement of development goals will be fleeting if climate change is ignored. When done right, investments in infrastructure, agriculture, and energy--traditional development issues--are among the most effective ways to reduce emissions. However, these topics tend to be negotiated in separate rooms, while on-the-ground responses are uncoordinated. World leaders and UN officials need to understand the common challenges in order to succeed.

Consider, for example, a farmer in Niger who plants trees and crops using traditional techniques that help reverse desertification, increase rainfall, sequester carbon dioxide, and improve productivity. These efforts are already paying off as Niger's cereal production has increased by 500,000 tons per year, or enough to feed 2.5 million people.

Smart, sustainable development will encourage this kind of solution. In Indonesia, a fisherman sees his catch decline, as rising carbon dioxide levels and increasing ocean acidification put coral reefs in peril. Integrated solutions, such as locally managed marine protected areas, can boost income from tourism and preserve fish populations, while enhancing the reef's resilience to climate change.

What, then, will it take to develop a more coherent and ambitious approach?

First, we need a unified political narrative that advances both agendas. For reasons of politics and complexity, negotiations on climate change and sustainable development run in parallel, yet climate change and development are two sides of the same coin.

Second, at the heart of both agendas is fairness. Development and climate change are laden with both historic and present-day inequalities. The poor in developing countries--those poised to bear the brunt of climate change--did the least to cause the problem. Developed countries should reduce carbon pollution and honor their commitment to provide aid equivalent to 0.7 percent of gross national income.

Yet developing countries and major emerging economies also have a role: their emissions are increasing dramatically and it will not be possible to meet the climate challenge if they do not make a serious commitment to low-carbon growth.

Finally, Policies and financing models of the past 50 years will not get us the success we want and need. We need to work differently, and we need to start now if we are to meet the goals the world has set for 2030.

Greater and more effective financing is needed. The public finance so far promised is a drop in the bucket of the challenge at hand, and fragmented planning processes and funding streams for development and climate change may be used to pit the two against each other. Wherever practical, they must instead work for mutual benefit.

We need to be far more strategic about our approach to financing and address the SDG funding gap, we see the financing landscape is becoming ever more complex, and there are a wide range of resources available to developing countries .However, all these different flows have distinct roles and comparative advantages, and some are more effective in supporting poverty reduction efforts than others.

None of this will be easy. Yet, the potential payoffs are immense. Success will provide a much-needed boost for international cooperation. On the other hand, if the process falls short, it would be a devastating blow for the multilateral system.

Ultimately, putting in place strong and fair approaches to sustainable development and climate change will improve the lives of billions of people.

Yes, it is possible to tackle climate change and end poverty! We already know that it is possible to achieve high levels of human development with relatively low ecological impact, because some countries have already done it, like Costa Rica and Cuba. We can hold such countries up as models for other developing countries to emulate. World leaders have an obligation to get this right.

Kaburu Anthony: International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to th...

Kaburu Anthony: International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to th...: Victims of terrorism continue to struggle to have their voices heard, have their needs supported and their rights upheld. Victims often fee...

International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism

Victims of terrorism continue to struggle to have their voices heard, have their needs supported and their rights upheld. Victims often feel forgotten and neglected once the immediate aftermath of a terrorist attack fades, which can have profound consequences for them.

Although terrorism is an international problem that affects most countries, most deaths caused by terrorism are concentrated in a small number of countries, including Somali, Syria,Yemen,DRC, Nigeria, Iraq and Afghanistan. In all of these countries, victims and survivors of terrorist attacks struggle to have their voices heard.

Today, the International day of Remembrance of, and Tribute to, the victims of terrorism, reminds us to stop and listen to the victims and survivors of terrorism, to raise up their voices and recognize the impact terrorism has on their lives.

It’s also a day to raise awareness of governments and the general public about the importance of long-term physical, psychological, social and financial rehabilitation of terrorism victims in order to help them integrate back into society.

We need to provide victims with long-term assistance, including financial, legal, medical and psychosocial support. When we lift up the victims and survivors of terrorism, listen to their voices, respect their rights and provide them with support and justice, we are honouring our common bonds, and reducing the lasting damage done by terrorists to individuals, families and communities.

Supporting victims and their families is a moral imperative, based on promoting, protecting and respecting their human rights. Caring for victims and survivors and amplifying their voices helps to challenge the narrative of hatred and division that terrorism aims to spread. #VictimsofTerrorism #HumanRights #SupportVictims #TributetotheVictims #Rememberance #ListentoVictims  #StopTerror

Kaburu Anthony: Water and Poverty: How Access to Safe Water Reduce...

Kaburu Anthony: Water and Poverty: How Access to Safe Water Reduce...: Despite the vital importance of water to all aspects of human life, the sector has been plagued by a chronic lack of political support, poo...

Water and Poverty: How Access to Safe Water Reduces Poverty

Despite the vital importance of water to all aspects of human life, the sector has been plagued by a chronic lack of political support, poor governance and underinvestment. Access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation facilities could transform the lives of millions in the world's poorest countries, but Dirty water and a lack of basic sanitation are undermining efforts to end extreme poverty and disease in the world's poorest countries.

Today, more than one out of nine people in the world lack access to safe drinking water, namely 783 million people, and more than two out of five, lack adequate sanitation (2.5 billion people). Every 20 seconds, a child dies as a result of poor sanitation that is 1.5 million preventable deaths each year. Seen over a day, more than 4,500 children die from waterborne diseases. 

Africa presently reels under serious water challenges. Water-based challenges such as widespread shortage, pollution, degradation, flooding and poor water management in cities and rural centres are problems which dot the African landscape today.

This state of affairs is further compounded as the world gets warmer, the rains pour heavier and oceans rise, making rural inhabitants migrate to cities in their millions. African cities are under dual pressure from uncontrolled urbanisation and flooding, worsened by climate-induced water stress.

Poverty

When we talk about poverty, we primarily refer to the economically disadvantaged groups of people across wide swaths of the globe, mainly in Africa and Asia that survive on subsistence farming or incomes of less than $2 per day. There were 2.4 billion people living in this situation in 2010.

The global rate of extreme poverty, defined as the percentage of those living on less than $1.25 per day, was halved between 1990 and 2010.

Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, remains mired in poverty. Its progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals lags behind that of other regions. The percentage of the population living in absolute poverty is essentially the same as it was 25 years ago.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa store only about 4% of their annual renewable flows, compared with 70%-90% in many developed countries, yet water storage is essential to ensure reliable sources of water for irrigation, water supply and hydropower and to provide a buffer for flood management.

Access to water

In that same twenty-year period, the global proportion of people living without access to clean water was halved as well, with 2.3 billion people gaining access to improved drinking water between 1990 and 2018. Currently, 748 million people live without access to safe water and 2.5 billion live without adequate sanitation.

Employment

For those who live without safe water, adequate sanitation, and effective hygiene practices, water-borne disease is a constant threat to health, keeping people out of the work force and in poverty. Over 40 billion productive hours are lost each year to fetching water in sub-Saharan Africa.

About half of the developing world’s hospital beds are occupied by people with water-related illness.

Education

Water and poverty are linked in education; preventable, water-borne disease keeps children out of school. An estimated 443 million school days are lost each year from water-related illness.

In many cases, children are too sick with diarrhea and other water-borne diseases like typhoid, cholera, or dysentery to go to school or must care for sick family members instead of going to class.

Children also must help their families retrieve safe water from long distances if it is not available nearby.

When the school does not have sanitation facilities, even a simple latrine, children must defecate in the open or miss class while they find someplace to go to the bathroom. This not only makes them miss class, it facilitates the further spread of disease.

Governance

When there is no safe water and sanitation, people are more vulnerable to powerful or wealthy individuals and groups that threaten their security and resources.

On the other hand when the community members are equipped and empowered to help themselves get access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene often lead to more productive collaboration in other areas, like education, ecological stewardship, and small business. Community achievement is contagious and transformative.

Women

Women bear the heaviest burden when there is no safe water and sanitation. In most places that lack these resources, women and girls in developing countries spend most of their days gathering water for their families, walking 5.6 kilometres on average each day to collect water.  Girls often drop out of primary school because their schools lack separate toilets and easy access to safe water.

Universal access to water and sanitation could prevent thousands of child deaths and free up hours each day for women and children to go to work or school. This is especially true for girls - studies show that girls are 12% more likely to go to school if water is available within a 15 minute walk rather than a one hour's walk which often puts them at risk of assault and injury.

Where women have access to a nearby source of clean drinking water, a toilet or latrine, and knowledge about good hygiene practices like handwashing, they and their families thrive. They can use the time saved to work in home-based businesses and agriculture as well as employment outside the home. More girls can attend school, and for longer. They can break the cycle of poverty and water-borne disease.

Disaster

Communities affected by disaster, either natural or man-made, are more resilient if they have access to safe water and sanitation. Communities with safe water have healthier members, whose bodies are more resistant to illnesses that come with disaster and displacement.

When clean drinking water, latrines or toilets, and good hygiene practices are present, people can recover from disaster more quickly.

Invest in safe water

Investment in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) promises one of the highest rates of return of any development relating to water and poverty.

A $1 investment in WASH yields $3-$34 in economic return. but lack of WASH can cost up to 5% of a country’s GDP.  In fact, no single intervention is more likely to have a significant impact on global poverty than the provision of safe water.

And despite the global decline in open defecation, in 39 countries the practice has actually increased over the past 17 years. The majority of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa and the wastes produced goes into the ground and water sources.

As a result, hundreds of millions of people around the world remain trapped in poverty and ill health and exposed to the risks of water-related disasters, environmental degradation and even political instability and conflict. Population growth, increasing consumption and climate change are among the factors that threaten to exacerbate these problems, with grave implications for human security and development.

Development partners will have to support Africa’s quest to develop its capacities for the implementation of SDG6, especially in the development of bankable water and sanitation projects. Closing inequality gaps in the accessibility, quality and availability of water, sanitation and hygiene should be at the heart of government funding and planning strategies.

Governments must, however, lead the efforts while external agencies work in a way that supports and builds government capacity to lead and to succeed. All stakeholders must therefore commit to work collectively and adhere to key behaviours that strengthen countries’ capabilities to deliver permanent and accountable access to water and sanitation services.

Finally, It is clear that urgent action is needed if we are to avoid a global water crisis.. Together, we must all aim to ensure sustainable access to safe water and sanitation for the most vulnerable communities through innovative partnerships, creativity and the power of art