６５６：水と衛生への投資は減っている？！

IRCからの情報があった。

９７年から０８年までのおよそ１０年間で水と衛生セクターへの開発援助は８％から５％に減っていると言う。確かにこの国でも水と衛生、特に衛生セクターへの支援は著しく少ない。

WHOもUNICEFも仕事が減るのは困るからこうした情報は出したがるのかもしれないね。

Global assessment: aid for sanitation and water going down from 8 to 5 percent of development spending

Updated - Tuesday 27 April 2010

Aid commitments for sanitation and water fell from 8% of total development aid to 5% between 1997 and 2008, lower than commitments for health, education, transport, energy and agriculture, according to the latest UN-Water Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report [1], launched by UN-Water and the World Health Organization (WHO). This drop occurred despite compelling evidence that achieving the water and sanitation target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) would lower health-care costs, increase school attendance and boost productivity.

Despite these clear benefits for human and economic development, many countries and donors are still not allocating sufficient attention and resources to water and sanitation. “Neglecting sanitation and drinking-water is a strike against progress. Without it, communities and countries will lose the battle against poverty and ill-health,” said Dr. Maria Neira, WHO Director of Public Health and Environment. “The impact of diarrhoeal disease in children under 15 is greater than the combined impact of HIV and AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis,” she added.

Improved access to sanitation and water produces economic benefits that range from US$ 3 to US$ 34 per US$ 1 invested, increasing a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by an estimated 2% to 7%. So the message is: sanitation and water must no longer play second fiddle to other priorities. Another finding of the assessment is that countries with the greatest unmet sanitation and water needs most often receive little or no aid from donors.

The findings from the UN-Water GLAAS report were tabled at the first annual High Level Meeting of Sanitation and Water for All [2], hosted by UNICEF on 23 April 2010 in Washington, DC. The High Level Meeting provided a forum for Ministers of Finance from developing countries, accompanied by Ministers responsible for sanitation and water from 20 developing countries, and representatives from 12 donor countries to gain a greater understanding of the linkages between water, sanitation, and economic growth, in order to commit the appropriate resources, as well as to promote a culture of mutual accountability, partnership and shared responsibility.

Outcomes from the high level meeting will be reported in the on-line version of the Source Bulletin, no. 60.

[1] WHO and UN-Water (2010). GLAAS 2010 : UN-Water global annual assessment of sanitation and drinking-water : targeting resources for better results.Geneva, Switzerland, World Health Organization.