The Expert Group on Equitable Access to Water and Sanitation under the Protocol on Water and Health serves as a platform for countries and stakeholders from the region to exchange experiences. It aims at supporting countries in their efforts to ensure equitable access to water and sanitation by providing a platform to exchange experiences in developing situational analyses, defining action plans and implementing concrete measures.
The 5th meeting of the Expert Group, organized by the UNECE secretariat of the Protocol on Water and Health in cooperation with the French Ministry of Solidarities and Health and the Hungarian National Public Health Institute, took place in Paris, France. It was hosted and funded by the French Ministry of Solidarities and Health.
The objectives of Expert Group Meeting were:
1. To exchange experiences and lessons learned from self-assessments of equitable access to water and sanitation in countries carried out since the previous Expert Group meeting, including the impacts of the self-assessments;
2. To exchange experiences and lessons learned from the development and implementation of Equitable Access Action Plans in countries, including process, outputs and impact;
3. To review the “country contributions on lessons learnt from the work on equitable access to water and sanitation under the Protocol on Water and Health” and provide further input;
4. To reflect on the discussions on the financing of equitable access to water and sanitation that took place at 4th meeting of the Expert Group and draw conclusions to be reflected in the publication under development and possible future work of the Expert Group;
5. To discuss the first draft of the publication “Capitalizing findings and lessons learnt from the work on equitable access to water and sanitation under the Protocol on Water and Health” and provide additional input for its development;
6. To exchange information on related topics, such as (i) implementation of targets 6.1 and 6.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals, and (ii) partners initiatives acting to promote the improvement of equitable access to water and sanitation;
7. To enable a deeper exchange of experiences with French organisations working on ensuring equitable access to water and sanitation, both in France and abroad.
Participation:
The meeting was attended by 38 participants, country representatives from the pan-European region whose work is related to equitable access to water and sanitation as well as representatives from development partners, international organizations, civil society organization and stakeholders engaged in the provision of water and sanitation services.
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