Madam Theresa Swanzy-Baffoe, WASH Advisor, SNV, Voice For Change Partnership (V4CP) programme, said the budgetary allocations for the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) under the WASH sector in Ghana was woefully inadequate.

She noted that progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would be difficult to attain without ensuring clean water, improved sanitation and hygiene for all.

Madam Swanzy-Baffoe made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the side-line of a two-day training workshop for media professionals in Elmina in the Central Region.

The workshop was organised by the SNV, to help build the capacity of journalists in their reportage and also educate them on the V4CP project.

Madam Swansy-Baffoe said basically, the V4CP programme seeks to use advocacy to be able to bring about change.

“Our key focus is for supporting the Government to achieve SDGs Six which aims at improving access to sanitation” he said.

She said currently, they were lobbying with the Government to increase budgetary allocation for sanitation.

She said they were also working towards bringing an end to Open Defecation (ODF) in the country, which was one of the key indicators they were hoping to achieve.

She said if the nation was able to end ODF, diarrhoeal related diseases like cholera and typhoid fever were going to be reduced.

She noted that enough budgetary allocation would enable the country achieve its target for the WASH sector.

“For now, we have been able to put together and forwarded a memo to the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources to give them concrete evidence, as to why the nation must prioritise sanitation,” Madam Swanzy-Baffoe stated.

Core to SNV’s WASH work is the understanding that water and sanitation were human rights, and that governments are the duty bearers responsible for the progressive realisation of this right.

SNV works with national and local governments to develop in-country capacities and systems to meet WASH challenges in their own contexts, and to realise their respective SDG Six commitments.

The V4CP is an evidence-based advocacy programme being implemented by SNV, in partnership with the International Food and Policy Research Institute and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It seeks to strengthen CSOs in Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Honduras and Indonesia in their role as advocates and lobbyists

The Dutch Ministry is funding the programme from 2016 to 2020, as part of its worldwide efforts to reinforce space for CSOs worldwide.