Sanitation and Water for All Announces New Global Leadership Council

 Luminaries to Champion Universal Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene by 2030

Today, the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) partnership announced the formation of a Global Leadership Council (GLC), a high-level group of appointed SWA leaders who will advocate for universal water, sanitation and hygiene in the lead up to 2030, the deadline for achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

The Global Leaders represent a geographically diverse group of esteemed politicians, executives, and advocates, including Kevin Rudd, former Australian Prime Minister and current President of the Asia Society; Laura Chinchilla, the Former President of Costa Rica; Henrietta Fore, UNICEF's Executive Director; Alan Jope, CEO of Unilever; and Kumi Naidoo, former Secretary-General of Amnesty International and former Executive Director of Greenpeace.

The GLC has been formed to advocate for and mobilize wider political commitment to the prioritization of water, sanitation and hygiene, build better governance structures and institutions to achieve SDG6 by the year 2030, and enhance the visibility of sanitation, water and hygiene both globally and nationally.

In their new roles, the Global Leaders will draw upon their experience and network of contacts in government, business, UN agencies, and civil society, to campaign for a multi-stakeholder approach in the political dialogue, and a unified front to overcome the challenges of achieving universal water and sanitation by 2030. 

"As the current pandemic has shown, access to water and sanitation is absolutely vital for public health and global development, as it is also for the achievement of other development goals, such as effective action on climate change and for realizing human rights in general," said Catarina de Albuquerque, CEO of SWA. "I am confident that our Global Leaders will be instrumental in advocating for and mobilizing wider and higher political commitment to the Guiding Principles and aims of the SWA partnership."

About SWA

Created in 2009, SWA is a UN-based growing global, intergovernmental, multi-stakeholder partnership for the water, sanitation and hygiene sector, comprising country governments from Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Europe; civil society; development partners (including regional development banks, UN Agencies, and philanthropic institutions as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), research and learning institutions, regulators and utilities and the private sector.

SWA leadership

The partnership's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is Ms. Catarina de Albuquerque, previously the first UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.

The Steering Committee assumes overall leadership for the strategic direction of SWA and oversees all SWA activities. It currently includes 28 members, 12 of them representing governments from different regions of the world.