The Sanitation and Hygiene Fund will be launched during an online event on November 17, 2020. The event will be seeking $2 billion over the coming five years to provide a 21st-century solution to the decades-old crisis on sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health. Currently, more than four billion people across the world do not have access to safely managed sanitation services, three billion lack access to basic handwashing facilities and nearly 10% of the world’s population still practice open defecation.
Many of the world’s most serious diseases and leading causes of child mortality are directly related to poor sanitation and hygiene. Yet, there has been considerable underinvestment in this sector for many years, which 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 risk 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 Organisation, and Dominic O’Neill, Executive Director of the Sanitation and Hygiene Fund. International broadcaster Ms. Zeinab Badawi will be moderating the online event, which will begin at 4 pm Central Europe Time or 10 am Eastern Standard Time on November 17.
The show will be streamed on the SHF website and its YouTube channel. By raising and investing the necessary funding, the Sanitation and Hygiene Fund will bring about change and drive this transformation. It will finance programmes that produce large-scale and measurable results, and deliver a fundamental social and human right to millions who have been robbed of their dignity.