African Development Bank Group experts together with Austria, Denmark, Germany (GTZ), Japan (JICA), Sweden and the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP-Africa)/World Bank, last week, participated in the 5th Joint Government/Donor Review of the country’s water and sanitation sector.

Uganda’s Minister of Water and Environment, Maria Mutagamba, opened the review. In her statement, she expressed the government’s appreciation of the support provided by development partners. She emphasized the need for efficient and effective use of the available financial and technical resources and greater attention to sanitation and hygiene with a view to fulfilling the commitment made by African Ministers at the recently concluded African sanitation conference in Durban, South Africa.

The local governments were urged to enforce the Public Health Act and bye-laws on sanitation and ensure proper planning and utilization of water and sanitation sector funds made available to them.

The key outcomes of the four-day technical review were adopted in the form of agreed minutes, which were signed jointly by the Government and the Development Partners.

Mr. Benedict S. Kanu, Country Operations Officer at the AfDB Field Office in Uganda, delivered the opening and closing remarks, and signed the agreed minutes on behalf of the Water and Sanitation Sector Development Partners’ Group. The Bank took over the chairmanship of the Group at the last Joint Sector Review which took place in October 2007.

In his statement, Mr. Kanu recognized the tremendous progress made with regards to decentralization and the high level of participation by the local governments, and emphasized the need to address climate change and adaptation issues, as well as ensuring that commitments endorsed at the 2007 Joint Sector Review are achieved by the next Joint Sector review in September 2008.

The meeting was attended by 128 participants from various Ministries, the Prime Minister’s Office, NGOs and the private sector.