Accelerate progress towards inclusive, safely managed sanitation services
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
(
Philanthropic organization
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#SDGAction51219
Description
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is dedicated to supporting the achievement of SDG 6.2 and to helping catalyze the widespread use of safely managed sanitation services, which contribute to positive health, economic, and gender equality outcomes for communities.
Through our work, we hope to draw attention to sanitation, which is a neglected issue, yet has immense potential to improve people’s lives, especially the lives of women, girls, and marginalized communities who suffer disproportionately from the burdens of poor sanitation.
In 2020, 3.6 billion people—nearly half the world’s population—used sanitation facilities and services that are not safely managed. When human waste is not safely managed it undermines individual dignity and potential, and it contaminates water, soil, and food. This contamination has significant knock-on effects, such as increasing the disease burden and impeding socio-economic development for communities and countries.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has already committed $370 million to grantee partnerships, between 2023-2026, to accelerate safe sanitation through three interlinked and essential pathways:
- Strong national policy: Strong national sanitation policies, regulations, and institutions that set clear frameworks and fund public service systems for the delivery of safe, inclusive sanitation services, are vital for progress in Africa, and around the world. A model of this is the African Sanitation Policy Guidelines, developed by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW), which government leaders in many African nations are adopting as a key step in transforming the state of sanitation for their citizens.
- Inclusive and sustainable sanitation services: City-wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) is a best practice, public-service approach for implementing inclusive and sustainable urban sanitation systems for all, especially those in low-income communities. This approach is designed around the combinations of infrastructure and technologies that exist in most cities—sewered and non-sewered, formal and informal. It takes advantage of systems that are already working well, and adapts and strengthens their equity, safety, and sustainability.
- Breakthrough sanitation innovations: Innovative sanitation technologies, like the reinvented toilet and the omni-processor, can open exciting opportunities, including new business models, public-private partnerships, and product offerings. These are needed to deliver a new era of safe sanitation for households, communities, and countries, and to reach people who have the least access. These technologies can also provide valuable climate co-benefits by reducing greenhouse gas emissions while increasing the resilience of urban services and infrastructure in the face of flooding or water shortages.
Over the last 12 years, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has supported the development of new technologies to provide sanitation access to the billions of urban residents not connected to sewer systems. Today, the foundation is developing commercial pathways to scale up production and use of these technologies in markets which can benefit the most from new solutions.
Together, these pathways support and complement the ongoing work of governments, businesses, innovators, and local community leaders by providing the tools, capacity, and technology that they may need to make progress towards safe, inclusive sanitation for all.
Through diverse and equitable partnerships, our desired impact is to fundamentally transform the sanitation sector to reach universal use of sustainable sanitation, contributing to better health, economic, and gender quality outcomes for the world’s underserved.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works with diverse partners to deliver on these commitments, including governments, UN agencies, civil society, research institutions, industry partners developing and commercializing the next generation of sanitation innovations, and others: Governments of Senegal, India, Bangladesh, South Africa, China, and others; Development financial institutions, including World Bank, Islamic Development Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, French Development Agency, USAID, and others; Multilateral partners, including African Ministers Council on Water, African Water and Sanitation Association, East & Southern Africa Water and Sanitation Regulators Association, Pan-African Sanitation Actors Association, UNICEF, World Health Organization, International Water Association, UNHABITAT, and others; Research Institutions; Commercial Partners; and Non-Governmental-Organizations, among others.
For more information about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's work on transformative sanitation technologies, read this article by Dr. Doulaye Kone, Deputy Director, Water, Sanitation & Hygiene: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/articles/sanitation-reinvent-toilet .
SDGS & Targets
Goal 6
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
6.1
By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all
6.1.1
Proportion of population using safely managed drinking water services
6.2
By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations
6.2.1
Proportion of population using (a) safely managed sanitation services and (b) a hand-washing facility with soap and water
6.3
By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally
6.3.1
Proportion of domestic and industrial wastewater flows safely treated
6.3.2
Proportion of bodies of water with good ambient water quality
6.4
6.4.1
Change in water-use efficiency over time
6.4.2
Level of water stress: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources
6.5
By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate
6.5.1
Degree of integrated water resources management
6.5.2
Proportion of transboundary basin area with an operational arrangement for water cooperation
6.6
6.6.1
Change in the extent of water-related ecosystems over time
6.a
6.a.1
Amount of water- and sanitation-related official development assistance that is part of a government-coordinated spending plan
6.b
Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management
6.b.1
Proportion of local administrative units with established and operational policies and procedures for participation of local communities in water and sanitation management
SDG 14 targets covered
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Deliverables & Timeline
A growing number of national governments prioritizing safely managed sanitation, as reflected in strong policies, institutions, and regulations that ensure services reach the poorest communities.
A growing number of countries prioritizing City-Wide Inclusive Sanitation with a growing number of cities demonstrating concrete progress on safely managed sanitation service provision
A growing number of private sector companies contributing to safely managed sanitation as a utility service, including service providers across the sanitation service chain with a new category of providers delivering transformative new products
Resources mobilized
Partnership Progress
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Entity
SDGs
Region
- Africa
- Asia and Pacific
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Contact Information
Eric, Senior Program Officer