pFour Northern Uganda towns of Oyan, this week of a cooperation agreement between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to design and implement town sanitation plans in the four towns.
As part of the cooperation, USAID has committed $2 million to the project over a two-year period, while the German Development Cooperation, implemented by GIZ, has agreed to match that contribution.
According to The US Embassy Information Assistant Dorothy Nanyonga, the focus of the USAID/GIZ project which is scheduled to kick start in a two months time is to make tangible improvements to sanitation service delivery in the four participating towns as well as build the capacity of local government officials to plan, design, and implement sustainable sanitation systems.
Capacity development measures will include local and national training workshops, tailor-made coaching, peer-to-peer learning exchanges, and national exposure visits.
World Health Organisation (WHO) and /United Nations International Children’s Educational Fund (UNICEF) estimate that only 34% of urban populations in Uganda have access to proper sanitation facilities; illustrating a dire lack of access to improved sanitation and hygiene hindering the country’s health, education, economic and social development sectors, as well as environmental protection.
Nanyonga told The Sunrise that “the agreement will potentially set country-wide standards for a planning approach to sanitation in rapidly growing small towns and will allow stimulate faster replication in the future,”
