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Mutual Accountability Mechanism

Mutual Accountability Mechanism

Accountability is central to the SWA partnership. It is the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s actions and account for them to others. It is a requirement for progress and a human rights principle.  

Accountability is about how promises are translated into action and aspirations into reality. While States ultimately have an obligation to ensure the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation, all stakeholders have a role to play in moving our societies toward the vision laid out in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. 

In response to this need, the Sanitation and Water for All partnership has created the Mutual Accountability Mechanism: a tool for partners to commit and hold each other to account for progress in achieving the SDGs’ water and sanitation targets – as well as an opportunity to collaborate, learn and catalyze collective action.

Make a commitment Report Progress

What is the Mutual Accountability Mechanism?

SWA’s Mutual Accountability Mechanism (MAM) is the only global accountability process in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector that is dedicated to all stakeholders working together towards achieving universal access to water and sanitation services. The mechanism helps to set priorities and a shared vision for the sector, as well as to identify roles and responsibilities for achieving them.  

The MAM provides a process for all partners to make commitments and hold each other to account on the specific, measurable, time-bound actions they plan to take to achieve their targets set on the road to reaching the Sustainable Development Goal 6.  

Commitments tabled under the MAM are based on national policies and enable monitoring. In just four years since the mechanism’s launch, over 400 commitments have been tabled, with half of them coming from 60 national governments.  

COMMITMENTS

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Government
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External Support Agencies
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Civil Society
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Research and Learning
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Private Sector
Country Constituency Body / Organizations Commitment Target year Progress
Global External Support Agencies UNICEF UNICEF commits to progressively realizing the human rights to water and sanitation, with a focus on priority interventions for children towards the achievement of water, sanitation and hygiene related targets in the SDGs. 2021
100%
Global External Support Agencies UNICEF 1. By 2025, UNICEF will directly reach 50 million people with sustained access to and use of safe water, 50 million people with sustained access to and use of sanitation and 50 million with sustained access to hygiene practices, particularly the most disadvantaged and those living in humanitarian and fragile contexts. 2025
50%
Global External Support Agencies USAID USAID has committed to increasing its investments in partnerships with local entities, including civil society, private sector, and institutional partners, in support of strong systems that meet local needs. USAID will support the Sanitation and Water for All Partnership’s Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration Working Group to achieve its goals. In 2023, USAID will launch High-Priority Country Plans for 21 countries in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean, which will be developed through multi-stakeholder processes and led by local staff. The Country Plans describe national sector priorities and outline how USAID’s investments will contribute to achieving success. 2024
Reviewing progress
Global External Support Agencies USAID Water security, sanitation and hygiene (WSSH) data must be both generated and effectively used for decision-making in order to achieve SDG6. To support the global community in evidence-based decision making, USAID will support global data analysis, including efforts to ensure these data continue to improve the global community’s understanding of inequalities we must work to overcome. We commit to evaluating our own programs, to supporting research that enables us to better understand promising practices and improve implementation, and include local voices as researchers as well as participants, and to disseminating the results of our investments in research to the global community using multi-stakeholder platforms. Finally, in 2023, USAID will launch a new partnership to develop tools that will make use of data easier for our Missions and partners worldwide and strengthen the WSSH data landscape more broadly. 2024
Reviewing progress
Global External Support Agencies UNICEF 3. By 2025, UNICEF - together with partners - will support the sector-wide shift towards the implementation of Climate-Resilient WASH programmes, based on understanding the risks, developing strong climate rationale, designing services and promoting behaviors to adapt to those risks and reducing the carbon footprint of the whole WASH sector. 2025
50%
Global External Support Agencies USAID Consistent with USAID’s current Water and Development Plan 2017-2022, USAID commits to investing in water security, sanitation and hygiene governance, institutions, markets, and financing to foster equitable, climate-resilient and sustainable access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene products and services, and to bolster WASH and water resource management systems. USAID will report on progress toward our 2021 commitment to leverage $1 billion in financing for climate-resilient water and sanitation by 2030. 2024
Reviewing progress
Global External Support Agencies UNICEF 2. By 2025, UNICEF will contribute to strengthened and resourced water, sanitation and hygiene systems and empowered communities for gender-equal, inclusive, affordable and sustainable services to meet the rights of all children and adolescents in more than 100 countries (66 of them SWA-partner countries), particularly the most disadvantaged and those living in humanitarian and fragile contexts. 2025
50%
Global External Support Agencies Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (UK) Through the WASH Systems for Health programme, FCDO will support governments in up to five developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to strengthen the systems needed to establish reliable, resilient and inclusive WASH services, over five years. These five countries will be chosen from a list which includes eleven flagship countries that form the core of the UK’s approach to ending the preventable deaths of mothers, young children and infants (EPD) and four countries where investment in WASH systems will complement other UK programmes increasing our impact. Within this programme we will establish a global WASH systems support hub which responds to demand from governments for advice and support on WASH systems strengthening. Beyond supporting SDG 6 targets 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3, this programme will also contribute to universal health coverage, with a focus on prevention that extends to improving access to WASH in health care facilities and schools, and quality education received in particular by girls. 2028
Reviewing progress

Explore our Partner countries

Line of Control as promulgated in the 1972 SIMLA Agreement

Dotted line represents approximately the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir agreed upon by India and Pakistan. The final status of Jammu and Kashmir has not been agreed upon by the parties

The boundaries and names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations

Why should my government or organization participate?

The Mutual Accountability Mechanism provides a concrete entry point for dialogue, transparency, and coordination. It is an opportunity for stakeholders to sit around the table to plan, mutually commit to act in a coordinated way, and improve the Sustainable Development Goal 6 outcomes through collaborative efforts. The MAM provides a framework for tracking progress and increasing the visibility of water, sanitation and hygiene initiatives, nationally and globally.

Mutual Accountability Mechanism Global Report 2021

 

COMMUNICATION TOOLKIT

Documents

View all Key documents
Key documents Type
MAM commitments in focus: Gender
MAM Commitments in focus of Latin America and the Caribbean
Mutual Accountability Mechanism: Finance Commitments Analysis for Africa
SWA and finance
MAM Climate commitments - May 2023
David Auerbach

The SWA Mutual Accountability Mechanism has helped to galvanize things in Kenya because it encourages conversations between the government and other stakeholders. For us, this has been extremely positive because we have been able to get a seat at the table with policymakers and are often turned to by government leaders for private sector insights.

Co-founder, Sanergy
Sareen Malik

The SWA Mutual Accountability Mechanism enables collaboration between government, civil society organizations, and other sector stakeholders, helping to bring transparency to collaborative processes while playing a crucial role in progress monitoring. The civil society constituency will continue to ensure that the voices and needs of marginalized groups, including women, girls, and persons with disabilities, are heard by decision-makers at the highest levels throughout these processes.

Executive Secretary, ANEW
Dr. Tej Bahadur Karki

The SWA Mutual Accountability Mechanism creates a unique opportunity for collaborative action and a culture of accountability, helping WASH stakeholders work towards shared goals. For research and learning institutions, it becomes a tool to identify the strengths and gaps in policy and practice in the sector. Through research, the MAM is creating opportunities in Nepal to explore new ideas for strengthening multi-stakeholder engagement.

Chairperson of the Nepal Philosophical Research Center
Mohammad Zobair Hasan

In Bangladesh, the SWA Mutual Accountability Mechanism has helped to operationalize and demystify accountability from an abstract concept to a tool for advocacy that improves outcomes. For example, government leaders now give time and space to discuss shared responsibilities and ambitions, because they can see how it helps to keep all stakeholders on track towards agreed sector goals.

Deputy Executive Director, Development Organisation of the Rural Poor
Paul Deverill

Increased accountability offers governments, donors, financiers, implementing partners, and communities of users unique opportunities to strengthen transparency, build trust, increase collaboration and improve performance in our work to secure universal access to sustainable and inclusive water and sanitation services. As such, accountability is essential if we are to achieve SDG 6 targets by 2030. This underpins our ongoing support to SWA and its Mutual Accountability Mechanism.

Senior WASH Adviser, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, UK
Emma Mbalame

The SWA Mutual Accountability Mechanism (MAM) has helped Malawi to bring greater legitimacy to the outcomes of national joint planning processes. Since we started using the MAM, we have become a better-coordinated sector, always ensuring we plan and move towards achieving our commitments together, in close collaboration and with government leadership.

Director of Water Supply and Sanitation, Ministry of Water and Sanitation
Kimanthi Kyengo 

In Kenya, the SWA Mutual Accountability Mechanism is being used as a coordination tool to bring together all major sector players to rally behind national priorities for water, sanitation and hygiene. We are proud to have commitments tabled by all constituencies led by their respective coordinators, and that these commitments have become a to-do list with regular progress checks. In a government-led process, activities have become better aligned and stakeholders are working in a more collaborative and accountable manner.

Sanitation Management and Head of Development Cooperation, Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation
Djoouro Bocoum

The implementation of SWA's Mutual Accountability Mechanism in Mali has made it possible to set up a multi-stakeholder platform that allows all stakeholders, including the Ministry of Finance, to get involved and make joint commitments under the leadership of the Government. Among other actions, this has resulted in significant progress in the sector, including the strengthening of political will, a significant increase in the share of the state budget, and more financing from donors.

National Director of Hydraulics