The African Ministers’ Council on Water of the African Union has launched the 2024 Africa Water and Sanitation Sector Monitoring Report. It reviews Africa’s progress on water and sanitation under the Sharm El Sheikh Commitments, Africa Water Vision 2025 and SDG 6.

Based on contributions from 45 AU Member States, the report  highlights if Member States are on-track to achieve the global targets. The analysis is outlined in 7 different themes:

• Theme 1: Financing
• Theme 2: Water supply, sanitation, hygiene and wastewater
• Theme 3: Water infrastructure for growth
• Theme 4: Managing and protecting water resources
• Theme 5: Climate change and disaster risk management
• Theme 6: Governance and institutions
• Theme 7: Information management and capacity development

Theme 6 draws on data from the 2023 SDG 6.5.1. monitoring round. The report also identifies key lessons to guide the transition toward Africa Water Vision 2063.

Integrated water resources management implementation in Africa

Between 2017 and 2023, a significant number of countries have progressed from “low” or “medium–low” levels of IWRM implementation, where arrangements are generally institutionalised, to “medium–high” levels, where implementation of the arrangements is generally underway, but objectives are not achieved. However, it is likely that progress will “slow” as operationalising aspects of IWRM is likely to be restricted by barriers such as financing and institutional capacity.