The Swedish government has newly approved extra funds from their
aids budgets to be made available to help countless people get access to water
and sanitation globally. In the next few days from now, the government will
have to decide on how to spend these funds, meant to help the billions of people suffering
from disease and malnutrition, missing school, and dying before the age of 5, because
they lack access to safe water and sanitation due to extreme poverty.
Sweden has already committed itself to the movement for global
access to water and sanitation. In fact, Sweden committed at the 2015 Global
Citizen Festival to provide 60 million people with water and sanitation by
2030. Sweden also listened to Global Citizens when they handed over a petition
to its government during Stockholm World Water Week, calling for delivery on
its water and sanitation commitment and to maintain its strong contributions to
development aid. And it worked. After
the petition handover, Sweden announced that it would increase its ambition
toward meeting its commitment as well as maintain its strong aid, overturning
the precedent set earlier that involved reallocating aid dollars to pay for
refugee resettlement costs.
Now Sweden is prioritizing its aid development budget, thanks to
the GLOBAL CITIZEN movement petition. Once again, let’s encourage the
government and make sure they and other capable wealthy countries,
organizations, emulates & continue on this path that Global Citizens helped
pave. What better time to announce new support as
Swedes and many others around the world prepare for the holiday season.
By giving these funds to organizations with a proven track
record on delivering sanitation results at scale, as Sweden continue its
leadership in the push for universal water and sanitation. The expectation is
that NGO’s / Charity organizations in Africa, with proven track records on
delivering on water & sanitation would key in to tap from these funds for a
great impact on the continent.
Source {Talia and the Global Citizen Team}