Leo Atakpu, ANEW's newly elected Chair adressed the closing plenary of AfricaSan3 with the following civil society statement:

We civil society organizations, under the banner of ANEW, and in partnership with FAN Global, End Water Poverty and WaterAid, having been recognized as key stakeholders in AfricaSan 3, have consulted widely with members across Africa and, with reference to the eThekwini Declaration; we present one voice to the AfricaSan 3 conference.

Whilst we appreciate a small number of countries are on track with sanitation progress and acknowledge the efforts made by the African Ministerial Council on Water (AMCOW), our governments and the international community to address the sanitation challenge; the facts speak for themselves. Urgent action needs to be taken in order to translate policies and paperwork into results for Africa.

WE CALL OUR GOVERNMENTS AND DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS TO WALK THE TALK AT AFRICASAN 3 AND BEYOND!

Governments and development partners must demonstrate strong leadership by publically championing sanitation as fundamental to development, and drive forward national and local sanitation plans.  We have identified three key areas of focus:

FINANCING
• A clear timetable and measureable targets for achieving expenditure of 0.5% of GDP on sanitation (as per the eThekwini Declaration) must be outlined.
• Separate budget lines for sanitation spending must be set up for better targeting of funds and for ease of monitoring.
• Resources should be better targeted towards countries with low sanitation coverage and a higher burden of sanitation related diseases.

COORDINATION AND PARTNERSHIPS
• Planning must involve marginalized people, such as urban slum dwellers, women, disabled, young people and the elderly as well as hard to reach areas, to ensure programmes are truly effective and responsive to their needs.
• Mechanisms for inter-sectoral coordination between key ministries, the private sector and civil society at national and local levels must be established and strengthened for effective planning and delivery.
• Governments and development partners must support the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) partnership to ensure high-level coordination of funds, decision makers and civil society.

MONITORING AND ACCOUNTABILITY
• AMCOW is obliged to hold governments to account in developing their country plans in line with the eThekwini and Sharm el-Sheikh commitments.
• Governments should work transparently and ensure reliable monitoring systems and data availability in order for civil society to hold them to account on their commitments.
• It is essential that governments develop transparent action plans to implement the Human Right to Water and Sanitation.

Now is the time to be ambitious and courageous so we can establish a robust framework that extends well beyond 2015.

CIVIL SOCIETY COMMITMENTS

We recognise that we can make a valuable contribution towards getting on track with sanitation progress and we commit ourselves, at continental, regional and national level, to the following:

EQUITY AND INCLUSION
• We will work to ensure that the voices of the poor and the most marginalised are heard and actively involved in the development of sanitation and hygiene policies and programmes.
• We will work with governments to mobilise communities to ensure the right to water and sanitation is operationalised.
• We will work with communities to develop low cost and locally appropriate technology options.

PLANNING AND MONITORING
• We will work closely with our governments and communities to promote participatory planning, transparency, coordination and accountability.
• We will work in partnership with Pan African, regional, national and bilateral organisations to track progress, identify challenges and seek joint solutions for achieving the sanitation commitments within the framework of eThekwini, strengthening our involvement in planning, monitoring and implementation mechanisms.
 
CAPACITY BUILDING
We will enhance our coordination, strengthen national networks, share our knowledge and experience and build our skills in advocacy and policy analysis so that civil society and communities can play an active role to address sanitation and hygiene issues.

TRANSPARENCY
We will work to ensure complete transparency around our own work by sharing our plans, investments, progress and results with each other, our governments and other sector stakeholders.

This is our collective challenge and we will set out a clear plan with milestones to achieve our commitments. When we meet again at AfricaSan 4 we will report on how far we have come and we call upon others to hold us account to the same.

He also spoke of the role ANEW can play:

"ANEW is now more organised, more determined and more committed that ever to play a role in addressing the sanitation crisis."