First African Water Week March 26-28, 2008 Tunis African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) African Ministers C ouncil on Water Ministerial Declaration African Development Bank African Union on “Accelerating Water Security for Africa’s Socio-Economic Development” PART I tablishing the AMCOW Trust Fund to facilitate the financing of MDG -related actions , the establishment of African Water Fa - Water, a Key to Sustainable cility and launching of the Rural Water Supply & Sanitation Ini - Development in Africa: tiative; Our Efforts and Achievements • Strengthening collaboration with civil society by formaliz - 1. We, the ministers responsible for water in Africa and pres - ing relations with the African Civil Society Network on Wa - ent at the First African Water Week, are convinced that en - ter and Sanitation (ANEW); suring water security through the equitable and sustainable management of water is and must remain the top develop - • Strengthening collaboration with African River and Lake ment challenge for the foreseeable future for our continent. Basin Organizations (ANBO); For Africa, it is imperative that we achieve by 2015 the Mil - lennium Development Goals on water and sanitation and • We have also forged close collaboration with the G-8, the other crucial and water-dependent goals on reducing whose summits over the last five years have adopted ini - poverty, hunger, child mortality, maternal mortality, and tiatives on water for Africa. We are co -operating with the Eu - major diseases. The African Water Vision 2025 continues ropean Union to implement the EU Water Initiative for Africa; to provide a basis for our actions . 4. We have made some progress in moving sanitation from 2. Over the last five years, our African Heads of State and the margins to the centre stage of our continental develop - Government have demonstrated great political commitment ment agenda through the support of a number of interna - and leadership, which have made it possible for Africa’s wa - tional partners dealing with sanitation. This has enabled us ter crisis and policy challenges to be brought from the mar - to make a comprehensive assessment of the challenges gins to the centre-stage of the regional development agenda. with regard to the sanitation target. We have therefore re - We recall that the Pan-African Implementation and Part - cently adopted eThekwini (Durban) Declaration on Sanita - nership Conference (Dec. 2003) was followed shortly after tion in February 2008 . We also welcome the African EU state - by the AU Heads of State and Government adopting the ment on Sanitation which commits the International Sirte Declaration in January 2004, on the integration of AM - Community to support our effort on sanitation in Africa . COW into the AU structures as a Specialized Technical Com - mittee. At their summit in February 2008, the African Heads 5. We instituted the African Water Week series to discuss of State and Government decided that their July 2008 Sum - opportunities and challenges of achieving water security for mit should be devoted to Water and Sanitation. Africa’s socio -economic development in furtherance of AM - COW’s mission . 3. At the sixth session of our Ministers Council on Water, AMCOW considered how best to accelerate action on the 6. We have at the first African Water Week deliberated on the MDGs and targets on Water and Sanitation. We recognise following key themes: infrastructure platform for achieving that progress has been made but a lot needs to be done. water security; meeting the water and sanitation MDGs; fi - We have also taken a number of enabling measures which nancing infrastructure for water security; climate change and include: adaptation ; addressing the environmental and social chal - lenges and institutional development and capacity building . • Adopting a comprehensive work programme to support ac - tions for meeting the MDG targets on water and sanitation, es - 1 PART II • Request the AfDB and the Water and Sanitation Programme Partnership for Regional (Africa ) to continue to undertake Country Sector Reviews , and National Actions to Accelerate within the context of the Pan African mechanism, to update Water Security for Africa’s AMCOW on progress and bottlenecks in achieving the MDG Socio-Economic Development targets ; 7. Our Heads of State and Government join global leaders • Establish peer review processes for monitoring water and in reaffirming international commitments to the Global sanitation performance for Members who ascribe to the Partnership for Development set out in the Millennium Dec - idea . laration, the Monterrey Consensus and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation . c. Financing Infrastructure for Water Security Objectives 8. We highly appreciate the international support and soli - darity extended to AMCOW and Africa for addressing the • Place the development benefits of water use and sanitation water and sanitation challenges. In order to meet the spe - infrastructure at the core of our finance strategies ; cial needs of Africa , we call upon our governments, na - • Strengthen the case for water use and sanitation infra - tional and regional organisations, the international commu - structure in National Development Plans and Public Ex - nity, and development partners , to extend concrete, substantial penditure , and direct an increasing proportion of multilat - and tangible support to the following quick impact actions : eral finance into infrastructure; a. Infrastructure platform for achieving water security • Direct more financial resources to local governments for water-use infrastructure delivery; • Give greater attention to investments in water infrastruc - ture, in order to overcome poverty and achieve needed eco - • Ensure the necessary African ownership, public control nomic growth and social well-being; and legal frameworks to protect the public interests, par - ticularly those of the poor and the vulnerable; • Facilitate trans-boundary infrastructure development ; • Deepen our regional partnerships over water use infra - • Develop national plans and strategies for achieving water structure, co-operating over shared water resources, and security ; looking for opportunities to invest in infrastructure of re - gional importance ; • Strengthen the information and knowledge base and mon - itoring capacity . • Match our reporting on finance with the economic and social impacts that have been delivered . b. Meeting the Water and Sanitation MDGs d. Climate change and adaptation • Make best use of existing resources , and mobilize financial and technical resources, from the public and private sectors, • Put in place adaptation measures to ensure sustainable and users, for water and sanitation infrastructure as well as water security for the social, economic and environmental for building institutional, technical and managerial capacity at needs ; all levels ; • P romote co-operation in the development of effective early • Prioritize and increase water and sanitation expenditures warning systems for water-related disaster prevention and in national budgets; mitigation to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on economic development, food security and poverty erad - • Increase, systematically, resources allocated to local ication efforts ; governments for the implementation of water and sanita - tion projects; • Encourage water use efficiency through appropriate meas - ures such as demand management, reuse and other tech - • Develop appropriate monitoring and evaluation mecha - nological options to optimize on limited water availability. nisms for water supply and sanitation at local, basin, na - tional and regional levels ; e. Agricultural Water Use • Present development partners with the outline of an “MDG • Re-engage in agricultural water in Africa, including irriga - Water and Sanitation Investment Plan for Africa” to reach tion, drainage and rainwater harvesting ; the MDGs , including the identification of the financial re - sources to be mobilised , and gap expected , from all devel - • Support NEPAD in the implementation of a new Initiative opment partners for endorsement by the G8 and MDG Sum - for Agricultural Water in Africa (AgWA) that responds to Pil - mit ; lar I of NEPAD’s Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Devel - opment Program (CAADP) ; 2 • Scale up investments to ensure a more reliable, broad - b. Make the African Water Facility and the Rural Water Sup - based and sustained flow of funds, as well as supporting ply and Sanitation Initiative constant agenda items in their sectoral strategies and policies in the field of agricultural deliberations and dialogue with international partners ; water. c. Encourage member countries to urgently develop climate f. Groundwater use change adaptation strategies and mainstream this in their water resources development ; • H arness local groundwater resources to improve liveli - hoods and manage risks associated with climate change; d. Endorse the eThekwini Declaration on Sanitation and its accompanying actions ; • Institutionalise dialogue on groundwater management in Africa and implement the Roadmap for the African Ground - e. Provide political support for the continued implementa - water Commission. tion of the Sirte Declaration on Agriculture and Water; g. Rainwater harvesting and Reuse f. Prioritize and increase the allocation of resources , through national plans, to water and sanitation in national budgets ; • Support the water harvesting strategies to complement implementation of the water -related MDGs