ACCORDING to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), poor access to improved water and sanitation in Nigeria remains a major contributing factor to high morbidity and mortality rates among children under five years.
The organisation notes that the use of contaminated drinking water and poor sanitary conditions result in increased vulnerability to water-borne diseases, including diarrhea, which leads to deaths of more than 70,000 children under five years annually.
From virtually all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria — from the north down to the south — water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) narratives are saddening and need urgent interventions for the betterment of the citizens and the environment.
Among the organisations that are at the forefront of this intervention programmes across the country are WaterAid Nigeria and its partners WASH Media Network and the Society for Water and Sanitation (NEWSAN). Working in over 100 communities across many states, these organisations have collaborated no solving many WASH challenges in the country.
Recently, in Abuja, WaterAid organised a two-day workshop for critical stakeholders and players — including civil society organisations (CSOs), researchers, and the media — in the WASH project to publicise and deepen the implementation of the African Sanitation Policy Guidelines (ASPG).
The essence of the ASPG — developed by the Secretariats of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), which Nigeria is a member — is to provide guidance to African governments on the reviews, revision, development, and implementation of sanitation policies.
The 211-page policy document, published in 2021, was studied and reviewed by WaterAid and its partners with the intention of creating awareness and easy implementation of the policy at national, state and local levels in line with their mandates of increasing access to clean water, decent sanitation, and improved hygiene for all Nigerians.
The Country Director of WaterAid Nigeria, Evelyn Mere, in her remarks, stressed that stakeholders and players in the WASH project must rigorously interrogate their progress in the eradication of open defecation by 2030 for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically goal 6.2, by challenging their thinking and scaling up their actions.
She noted that WASH falls within the purview of multiple ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in Nigeria, and that inter-ministerial collaboration is indispensable to achieving safely-managed sanitation for all.
Mere further noted that the media and the civil societies are the most strategically positioned actors to achieve these objectives.
“I am confident that through robust conversations, everyone will have a better understanding of the provisions of the ASPG and, importantly, design an advocacy and media plan to support the ongoing WASH policy review process so that no one is left behind,” she said.
The National Coordinator of WASH Media Network, Wale Elekolusi, in his remarks, stated that bringing CSOs and the media together is a good step towards addressing water and sanitation problems facing Nigerians, and also to successful implement the ASPG guidelines.
“Sanitation is essential to human health, and offers extensive socio-economic and environmental benefits — and the lack of it brings us disadvantage,” he said.
The National Coordinator of NEWSAN, Attah Benson, in his speech, commended WaterAid for organising the event and for thinking outside the box by bringing together CSOs and media practitioners to address WASH problems.
Benson stressed that sanitation is like security, that each person has their own role to play. He added that it is not right for one government ministry or agency to claim ownership of the mandate of the WASH sector and projects.
“The problem with WASH policies is not at the national level, but at the state and local levels due to lack of harmony of mandates and interests,” he said. “But we hope to produce an encompassing and workable policy that will hold stakeholders accountable.”
In the course of the workshop, for the first-day interactions, two resource persons presented papers on ASPG- and WASH-related policies and projects.
The first paper, ‘Policies and Institutions for Achieving Safely Managed Sanitation in Nigeria: Roles and Rules for CSOs and WASH Media’, was presented by development consultant and researcher, Danladi Ephraim.
According to the statistics Ephraim presented, 46 percent of Nigerians have access to basic sanitation services, 23 percent practice open defecation, fragmented institutional setup, capacity constraints, among others.
He also presented statistics that showed that the North West of the country has 42 per cent of access to sanitation; North East, 51 per cent; North Central, 35 per cent; South West, 47 per cent; South South, 46 per cent; and South East, 57 per cent.
On open defecation, the statistics showed that North West has 11 per cent; North East, 17 per cent; North Central, 47 per cent; South West, 24 per cent; South South, 23 per cent; and South East 22 per cent.
Ephraim warned that, as long as WASH projects and programmes are concerned, business as usual is not good enough. He advocated a new focus of approaching WASH issues which must include scaling, equity, and sustainability.
He also advocated a rethink on rural sanitation programmes, which must include government leadership, stakeholder alignment, area-wide programming, inclusive solutions, and evidence-based and adaptive implementation.
The second paper, ‘African Sanitation Policy Guidelines (ASPG): Standardisation of WASH Policies for Maximum Impact’, was presented by Head of Advocacy, Policy and Communication of WaterAid Nigeria, Kolawole Banwo.
Banwo noted that the ASPG was conceptualised based on a rapid assessment of sanitation policies of 26 countries of Africa (including the National Water Sanitation Policy 2004, Nigeria).
He added that the document offers a platform to strengthen collaboration to accelerate progress to provide access to safely managed sanitation at scale to all Nigerians, and that civil societies and the media have a critical role to play in it.
He stated that the ASPG addresses the safe management of excreta, associated hygiene practices, disposal of anal cleansing, and menstrual hygiene materials. He added that the document does not address stormwater and greywater; and food, water and environmental hygiene.
In the course of the first-day interactions, there were plenary sessions where the participants and stakeholders came together under three groups to brainstorm, discuss and proffer answers to some fundamental questions on the ASPG.
The questions were as follows: What are the strengths of the ASPG? What are the weaknesses of the current policy environment in Nigeria? What are the opportunities for the application of the ASPG in the sanitation sector in Nigeria? What are the threats to the successful domestication of the ASPG in Nigeria? Who are the stakeholders to be engaged for successful policy development in Nigeria?
On the second day of the workshop, answers from the previous plenary sessions were reviewed, presented and improved on.
The first paper for this day, ‘Performance Monitoring and Effective Communication for Development − Policy Implementation’, was presented by Emmanuel Iorkumbur.
In his presentation, Iorkumbur stated that communication for development is built around four axes: communication for coordination, communication for empowerment, communication for promotion, and communication for implementation.
He noted that understanding the audience and stakeholders are vital in communication and the best way to establish how to prioritise one’s communication is to chart their stakeholders’ power and influence. He added that this will quickly show where one needs to direct their energies.
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Iorkumbur stated that the media/channels for impactful communication include workshops, advocacy, television broadcasts, radio engagements, social media platforms, dialogues, town hall meetings, IEC materials, among others.
The second paper, ‘African Sanitation Policy Guidelines (ASPG): Standardisation of Wash Policies for Maximum Impact’, was presented by Kolawole Banwo.
In his presentation, he stated that advocacy and strategy planning can be achieved by utilising the media, building coalitions, using information, lobbying decision makers, and analysing budgets.
Still on advocacy, he noted that issues at hand are policy (inclusive WASH policy), the beneficiaries (citizens — including women and girls), and the targets/audience (decision makers/technocrats).
Banwo said that the tools and tactics to achieve the advocacy project include: face-to-face meetings, capacity development workshops, constructive engagement and dialogue backed by evidence, policy briefs, advocacy correspondence (letters and briefs), media engagements (talk-shows, audience participation, documentaries, articles, features, investigative reports, etc.), and co-creating or leveraging existing processes and frameworks.
The last paper for the day was also presented by Banwo, and it was titled ‘ASPG Domestication in Nigeria: Reviewing the Journey’. In this paper, Banwo talked about the overlapping mandates of the critical stakeholders in the WASH sector and their various responsibilities.
He stated that the challenges facing the domestication of the ASPG policy are mostly good understanding of deploying the ASPAT for policy assessment, the generation of dedicated staff, and timely assemblage of front-line ministries.
After the presentations, there were group-work presentations on the policy development process for ASPG, which will be drawn into a working document that will help in the effective implementation of the ASPG guidelines within a workable timeline.
While declaring the workshop closed, Banwo stressed that the advocacy for the ASPG is a continuous process. He tasked the CSOs and media practitioners to ensure its sustenance and workability.
“Let us continue to challenge, engage and influence the powers that be towards the progress and success of the ASPG policy,” he concluded.
and then