WaterAid addresses UN General Assembly

On World Water Day, Monday 22 March, WaterAid Chief Executive Barbara Frost was among the speakers at the UN in New York.  Campaigns Manager Kate Turner has also been blogging about the trip...

Sunday 21 March

This morning, myself, Barbara, Margaret, Jonathan and Jan met to discuss World Water Day and plans for the rest of the trip. 

We are meeting Deputy and Permanent Representatives from a number of countries and a number of UN agencies.

The plan for tomorrow is an early start, with Jan and Barbara speaking on UN discussion panels on the MDG's and climate change. We are going to push the cause of sanitation, critical to achieving the MDGs.

After our first meeting, we met with David Winder, Chief Executive of WaterAid in America, in his garden. Then further information with Jan before a quick dinner at a local Chinese restaurant.

Obama is trying to push through healthcare, we are pushing on with water and sanitation (aka WASH!).

Good luck all with the World Water Day plans, loving the pix from Cameroon, Ghana, UK, India and Australia among others - we will do our best tomorrow too - to highlight the water and sanitation crisis, and create the next steps for getting water and sanitation to the world's poorest people.

Monday 22 March

Today at the UN was amazing:

WaterAid was definitely seen and heard at the highest level. We believe WASH needs to be prioritised and seen as a human right, and there were a lot of people agreeing with this.

I sat writing notes, fighting to get a DVD played at the UN, tweeting (need to get better at using hash tags - if someone could let me know where the hash key is on a Mac I would be most grateful!), taking and uploading video, one of which you can see below, and another.

Jan and Barbara had press interviews, questions to deal with and lots of people wanting to meet them (and the rest of us.) I picked up some useful contacts too. It was a long day but most successful.

Tomorrow: more meetings, starting off with Denmark and finishing with UNDP. Will tell you more tomorrow.

On a personal note, I had to walk down 27 flights of stairs as a leak meant I couldn't use the lift - wish I was in the other tower with Barbara and Margaret!!

Tuesday 23 March

Today we met with the Danish and Senegalese missions, they are joint chairs for the MDG summit in September.

We also met with the Spanish Ambassador (current chair of the EU), the Japanese Ambassador, the Associate Administrator from UNDP, and the UN Deputy Secretary General.

All of the people we met, whether they knew about WaterAid or not, agreed how important water and sanitation are to achieving the MDGs and could be seen as an issue that brings all of the MDGs together. We now have a significant opportunity to follow up and engage in the MDG process. 

A truly great day, seeing just how popular Jan Eliasson is around the UN but also seeing how WaterAid can ensure water and sanitation (WASH) is recognised and, most importantly, looking at how we can get water and sanitation to those that don't currently have it. More tomorrow...

Wednesday 24 March

Today we met with representatives from Belgium, Tajikistan, Ghana, UN Water, the Non Governmental Liaison Service, and colleagues from UNICEF. Again, a busy day with much success as more people engage with WaterAid.

The Ghanian Ambassador tells us we are doing the right thing, getting water and sanitation on the agenda with the government representatives - although we need to do more.

Barbara Frost (pictured, far right) adds:

From left to right: Margaret Batty, Jan Eliasson, Ms Asha-Rose Migiro (UN Deputy Secretary-General) and Barbara Frost

Credit: WaterAid

"The Monday General Assembly event was excellent – most countries sent representatives and the interconnectedness of the MDGs came out well. Several countries called for water and sanitation to be human rights and most acknowledged the need to do more around sanitation as well as water.

"On Tuesday, we met with Ambassadors from Japan (biggest investor in WASH), Senegal and Denmark (who are coordinating the process on the MDG outcome document to be prepared for September), Spain as EU President, and the UN Deputy Secretary General. The process to prepare the MDG review document is under way and an extremely complex one it is – what's more the aim is to get it done by end July so time is tight.

"WaterAid colleagues – in our country programmes, End Water Poverty, Freshwater Action Network, America, Australia, the UK and Sweden – have all done such a good job on focusing attention around World Water Day. It's been One WaterAid in action – I am delighted!"

Read Barbara Frost's speech to UN General Assembly, 22 March 2010 
( PDF File 17Kb)

Thursday 25 March

Today was our final day in New York. We had an early start to plan the next stages for following up, after all our meetings with so many different people and organisations.

Then, more meetings! We met with the Liberian Deputy Representative who was a great font of knowledge, the Millennium Campaign and finally (after a very quick lunch) the UK mission.

All in all an, it's been an extremely effective advocacy and fact-finding trip. which will have implications for our work in the future, especially at the MDG Summit in September. Utterly exhausting too!

Many thanks to Jonathan and David from WaterAid America for hosting and arranging our trip. That's all folks!

Background information - WaterAid at the UN

Barbara Frost will address the UN General Assembly, focusing on the issue of water and climate change, pressing for urgent action on the global water and sanitation crisis.

Speaking in advance of the event, Barbara said: "WaterAid very much welcomes the opportunity to contribute to this significant event. We hope it will have a positive impact on the development of global initiatives for ensuring safe water and sanitation for all, and in highlighting the need to invest in sanitation to ensure the MDGs do not fail."

Former UN General Assembly President and Special Envoy to Darfur and current WaterAid Sweden Chair, Jan Eliasson, will also take part in the event, chairing a panel on water and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The debate comes at a critical time in the fight to end the water and sanitation crisis. In April, ministers will meet for the first ever High Level Meeting on Water and Sanitation.

Then, in September, world leaders will meet for the MDG Review Summit to examine progress on the 2015 targets to date.

On the same day as the UN debates - Monday 22 March, World Water Day - tens of thousands of people in 68 countries will take their place in the World's Longest Toilet Queue to draw attention to the fact that 4,000 children die every day because of lack access to sanitation and safe water.

Find out more about World Water Day here.