OneShared.World Announcement, November 23, 2021
COVID-19 has demonstrated the importance of safely managed water, sanitation, and hygiene services. Hand hygiene is an essential part of protecting human health during infectious disease outbreaks and still one of the most important measures in our fight against COVID-19. It has become very clear that access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene is a cornerstone of public health, which needs to be strengthened as we aim to not just overcome this crisis, but to build back better. Ensuring that everyone on earth has access to safe water, basic sanitation, and hygiene, and essential protection by 2030, or #WASHPAP2030, is not charity but the best investment we can make in building a secure future for everyone.
With this urgency and context in mind, the Permanent Missions of Germany and Spain to the United Nations invited Peter Ullrich, our Project Coordinator for Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Pandemic Preparedness (WASHPAP), to discuss “WASH and Pandemic Preparedness – opportunities and challenges of building back better,” on November 1, 2021. Peter was joined by Pedro Arrojo, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation; Fatuma Musa Afrah, the founder of United Action; and Inga Winkler, an Associate Professor in International Human Rights Law at Central European University. He spoke about the importance of youth leadership in advocacy and campaigns, the importance of bridging the gap between knowing and doing, and the success we have had with our campaign so far.
OneShared.World’s #WASHPAP2030 campaign is working towards preventing the rampant spread of communicable diseases and ensuring a brighter, more equitable future for communities worldwide. Working with partners including MUN Impact, the India Sanitation Coalition, and the Aga Khan Foundation, OneShared.World organized a series of debates and consultations involving many hundreds of youth leaders in forty countries across the globe, working in multiple languages with with the advice of some of the world’s leading experts, to collectively draft a United Nations-style resolution outlining a specific plan for #WASHPAP2030.
