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.
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
Government
External Support Agencies
Civil Society
Research and Learning
Private Sector
Country | Constituency | Body / Organizations | Commitment | Target year | Progress |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Global | Civil Society | Freshwater Action Network South Asia | By 2020, support FANSA national chapters and associates in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka to actively engage with respective National Governments and build strong multi-stakeholder platforms on WASH at the national level and there after support in proper functioning of the same. | 2020 | |
Global | Civil Society | Freshwater Action Network South Asia | Between 2019 and 2022, FANSA will work with its national chapters and CSO members in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka to collect evidence on exclusion and best practices related to equitable and inclusive WASH progress. On the basis of the same, provide consolidated input and facilitate representation of the voices of the marginalized to inform the decisions and commitments at SACOSAN in 2020 and 2022, SWA High-level Meetings and other important global platforms on WASH and SDG 6. | 2022 | |
Global | Civil Society | Freshwater Action Network South Asia | Support four national CSO platforms to develop country specific strategy and tools to advocate for equitable and inclusive sanitation progress with focus on women, children, elderly and persons with disability. | 2022 | |
Global | Civil Society | Water.org | Work with local governments, service providers, and civil society organizations to strengthen policy and regulatory environments that support financial flows to enable water and sanitation access for those who need it most. | 2023 | |
Global | Civil Society | Simavi | Take leadership in providing support and inspire initiatives aiming at realisation of human rights (HR) to water and sanitation for all, with an emphasis on HR principles, namely access to information, non-discrimination, accountability, participation and sustainability, as well as affordability, acceptability and accessibility. | 2020 | |
Global | Civil Society | White Ribbon Alliance | White Ribbon Alliance commits to act on women, girls’, and midwives’ demands and catalyze, by 2025, at least five country governments to prioritize WASH in health care facilities in their national and subnational agendas and budgets, including appropriate allocation of human, financial, and technical resources. We will achieve this by: • Mobilizing 5,000,000 underserved women and girls across the world, in all their diversity, to speak up and advocate for improved reproductive, maternal, and newborn health and rights including WASH. • Supporting more than 50,000 midwives and health providers to advocate for increased availability of life-saving WASH interventions in healthcare facilities. • Galvanizing 150 influential health and media champions in 10 countries to join the WASH community to call for increased investment in WASH in healthcare facilities, especially clean water and toilets. | 2025 | |
Global | Civil Society | Amref Health Africa | Support the African voice in the convening of regional and global forum on WASH, health and climate change and showcasing the best practices through initiatives taking place in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi. | 2022 | |
Global | Civil Society | Amref Health Africa | Support convening of national climate change and WASH coordination forums in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi (Kick-start countries). | 2022 |
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