End Water Poverty, African Water Justice Network, Africa Rising, Blue Planet Project and others have created a template petition for civil society and community-based organisations in Africa to encourage their governments to advance the priorities of rights-holders in Africa at the UN 2023 Water Conference.
As countries across the world convene in New York from 22 to 24 March 2023 for the UN 2023 Water Conference, key discussions will take place that will shape how countries perceive and manage water resources and systems for decades to come.
Africa is particularly vulnerable to water insecurity due to factors such as water privatisation, natural resource extraction, low tax funding to the water sector, and poor water and sanitation infrastructure. As a result, many African communities are at risk of water-borne diseases, crop failures, and economic insecurity. This is particularly true of marginalised groups, such as women and children, who often bear the responsible for porting water into homes in the absence of piped networks.
This is why it’s essential that delegations from Africa that are attending the UN 2023 Water Conference strongly represent voices from the African continent and advance key priorities of rights-holders in Africa.
You can use the template petition (in English and French) to encourage your government to push for a progressive water agenda in Africa. The petition has already been used by organisations in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Ghana, Cameroon, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
We urge you to sign one of these petitions or use the template petition to create your own petition in your country, and get civil society, community-based organisations and communities across your country to sign the petition! The collection of signatures will continue into the second week of March 2023 before they are presented to government officials, and there may be an opportunity to share the petitions with the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to water and sanitation!