9AWW: Advancing Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) Regulation for accelerating universal sanitation access

The SDG target for sanitation is falling short, requiring a five-fold acceleration in progress to achieve universal access to safely managed sanitation by 2030. Globally, there is growing recognition of the critical role that regulation plays in ensuring that sanitation services are safe, affordable, sustainable and inclusive. Yet, sanitation regulation remains relatively weak compared to that of water, with regulations mainly skewed towards sewered systems that only serve a fraction of the population, unclear mandates and weak accountability mechanisms. To address this need, the World Health Organization (WHO), Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) and others have developed a Roadmap for advancing sanitation regulation. The roadmap builds on practical experience from regulators across the globe and provides high level, step-by-step guidance to support countries in implementing sanitation regulation. In parallel, ESAWAS Regulators Association and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have produced complementary documentation of CWIS regulatory journeys in 6 countries in East and Southern Africa that provides evidence of how effective regulation enhances safe and inclusive sanitation service provision. This interactive session will share key components of the roadmap for strengthening sanitation regulation, supported by practical experience from countries with nascent and advanced progress in implementing CWIS regulation.