To strengthen the accountability work that Freshwater Action Network-Mexico (FANMex) has been doing with Sanitation and Water For All (SWA) and End Water Poverty (EWP), a new network has been launched to increase the access to information for transparency, people’s participation and accountability in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector. The Red ATL network is constituted as a result of the activities developed over the last two years by FANMex, ControlaTuGobierno AC, and Oxfam México to identify effective routes of action between the society and government in order to guarantee the rights to water, sanitation and hygiene in Mexico.
The main purpose of this network is to reduce the existing inequality gaps through the transparent, sustainable and equitable management of water and sanitation in the country. To achieve this, the network will follow up the actions of the new government in relation to the advances of the rights to water and sanitation with a gender and intercultural perspective, considering that,
- Human rights are interrelated, interdependent and indivisible;
- the Mexican Government is committed to sustainable development and a healthy environment through various international agreements and treaties, as well as the Constitution of Mexico and various national laws;
- Agenda 2030 represents an operational framework envisioned in the Planning Act that can contribute to the enjoyment of human rights; and
- the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Objectives needs to be accompanied by planning, monitoring and accountability processes, that are inter-sectoral and inter-institutional to achieve an efficient budgetary exercise with a transforming vision.
On 28th May, a press conference was held in Mexico City to present Red ATL and its strategic framework for social and institutional strengthening of water and sanitation sector. After the press conference, a workshop was organized for the civil society representatives from 16 different states in Mexico to explore the ATL strategy in detail and how it could be useful in different local contexts. The strategic framework of ATL network, clearly states, “State stewardship and accountability are two basic premises for reducing inequalities, making the public interest prevail over the private and radically changing the administration of the budget, so that priority is given to the use of public resources[,] in actions and works aimed at the realization of all the standards of law.”
A detailed strategic framework of Red ATL network, can be found here in Spanish.