Follow-Up of the International Year of Sanitation, 2008

Calls upon all Member States to support the global effort to realize “Sustainable sanitation: the five-year drive to 2015” by redoubling efforts to close the sanitation gap through scaled-up ground-level action, supported by strong political will, increased community participation and improved hygiene, in accordance with national development strategies, by promoting the mobilization and provision of adequate financial and technological resources, technical know-how and capacity-building for developing countries and by developing appropriate human resources in order to improve hygiene and to increase the coverage of basic sanitation, especially for the poor;

Encourages all States, as well as the United Nations system and all other relevant stakeholders, to take advantage of “Sustainable sanitation: the five-year drive to 2015” as a platform on which to build political will and promote action at all levels, while increasing awareness of the urgent need to reach the goal set out in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation to halve by 2015 the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation;Error: Reference source not found

Invites all Member States to increase political prioritization, to promote evidence-based decision-making and to support strong national planning processes in order to better target funding for basic sanitation and drinking water to achieve the internationally agreed targets set out in the United Nations Millennium Declaration¹³ and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, including halving by 2015 the proportion of people who are unable to reach or afford safe drinking water and who do not have access to basic sanitation;

Urges all Member States, the United Nations system and all other relevant stakeholders to encourage behavioural change together with policies for increasing access to sanitation among the poor, complemented by a call to end open defecation as an extremely harmful practice for public health, and encourages Member States to further strengthen investments in sanitation and hygiene education;

Encourages all Member States, as well as the United Nations system and international organizations and other stakeholders, to approach the sanitation issue in a much broader context and to encompass all its aspects, including hygiene promotion, provision of basic sanitation services, sewerage, and wastewater treatment and reuse in the context of integrated water management.