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National High School Model United Nations 2015 HLPF latrine.” 120 This case shows that for an effective water and sanitation program, states need to go beyond building piped drinking water connections, treatment plants, and toilets connected to a sewage system. Providing the infrastructure will be useless if countries do not understand the importance of their use, maintenance, and continued performance of the facilities. For actual effects on development, and in order to promote a culture around water and sanitation, governments must involve the community in all the stages of the process, as the Indian case shows. Only when the community gets involved in the “planning, construction, operation, and maintenance” of the pipelines and sewages will water and sanitation truly be provided. 121 BLOC ANALYSIS Although this topic focuses specifically on a particular region, the solutions conceived to tackle this issue involve the whole international community. Every state plays an important part in crafting effective proposals, which assure the sustained and sustainable development of SSA through sustainable access to water and sanitation. Thus, to guarantee the effectiveness of the strategies, states must work together, while being aware of each other’s different policies and viewpoints. Moreover, addressing the water and sanitation crisis in SSA would ultimately benefit other countries. Providing effective solutions for this issue would enable the region to reap the full benefits of its development potential, contributing to a more equal global development process and more equitable, fair, and productive societies. However, countries will find contention when discussing how exactly SSA’s states will bring water and sanitation to its people. Questions like who would fund the investments, how they would do so, and how SSA would guarantee suitable conditions for such investments may arise and will be crucial for debate. Sub-Saharan African States This group of states comprises the core of the issue. Thus, their cooperation and disposition to craft realistic solutions is key to effectively addressing the topic. Since they are the countries that directly face the developmental challenges regarding water and sanitation, it is their mission to be willing to engage in comprehensive strategies that guarantee long-term sustainability. Hence, they will be leading the discussion around crafting wide-ranging partnerships and other cooperation mechanisms that ensure their sustainable access to water and sanitation and consequently a sustained development. Therefore, the SSA states will aim for regional and interregional partnerships that assure more coordination and coherence in the execution and effectiveness of the strategies. Regional partnerships would enable the SSA states to build strong, long-term cooperation networks with other regions that share common traits, which would be beneficial for both regions’ development. Nonetheless, SSA countries must be aware of their vulnerabilities and limitations. Therefore, this bloc of countries must be very realistic when developing solutions and strategies, keeping in mind !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 120 “One Billion People Still Practise Open Defecation, Endangering Public Health: UN,” Huffington Post, 8 May 2014, accessed 23 July 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/08/one-billion-open-defecation_n_5289049.html. 121 Okun, “The Value of Water Supply and Sanitation in Development: An Assessment.” - 23 -
National High School Model United Nations 2015 HLPF that they must tackle water and sanitation while contributing to their own integral development. It is their duty to be aware of their own situation and reflect that in the solutions the Forum crafts. These limitations also include economic restrictions, as many will be unable to fund massive changes and will thus need to form partnerships with more developed countries or focus on less economically reliant solutions. Additionally, they will be willing to cooperate and engage in comprehensive strategies with other states because no country alone can tackle a complex issue like this one, let alone a state immersed in such a particular development context. Therefore, these countries will highly support strategies that involve foreign investment and resources to finance the construction of pipelines and sewage systems. Since SSA’s economic capacity is greatly reduced at the moment, it needs foreign resources to fund the infrastructure’s construction, management, and maintenance. For this purpose this bloc would be willing to engage in partnerships such as North-South, PPPs, and FDI which involve economic cooperation with more developed countries. These three mechanisms would enable SSA to have a steady flow of funding to sustain the economic effort being made to provide water and sanitation. On the other hand, SSA states will be open to cooperate with countries with similarly low development rates to theirs, through South-South cooperation. They will promote partnerships not only with other developing countries but also within SSA itself. Since they share similar development characteristics, this bloc will likely embrace those partnerships to tackle common issues like lack of governance and consultation. This would likely ease economic burden, strengthen political relations, and generate more political engagement in the region to encourage water and sanitation initiatives. These states will find contention with the other blocs when discussing how economically dependent SSA’s countries should be on external resources. Due to SSA’s precarious financial situation, the states in this bloc will likely be pushing for strong external economic and political contributions. However, many other member states will be opposed to this and defend the idea that SSA should solve the issue internally with its own resources. Therefore, SSA countries must be willing to negotiate balanced conditions for the partnerships that supply their water needs while simultaneously guaranteeing stability for the investors and partners. Other Developing States Other developing nations are crucial for the successful development of solutions and strategies. They are the strategic partners for SSA countries, and so should be willing to cooperate and engage in favorable development strategies that are beneficial for all. Since they share common development characteristics and experience similar challenges, long-term and stable partnerships between them would likely yield benefits for both sides. This group of countries should take advantage of their position and seize these partnerships as an opportunity for their own development as well. They will be willing to enrich the debate with their own experiences and cases and contribute to the crafting of realistic solutions where they can also derive benefit. This would involve promoting South-South cooperation and long-tern regional and interregional partnerships with SSA to tackle common aspects of water and sanitation issues. They will likely encourage building endurable cooperation networks with SSA where they can exchange technology, strategies, and consultation. Additionally, these countries will be interested in using those networks to work specifically towards - 24 -
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