The 7th RWSN Forum explored the practicalities of reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Human Right to Water in rural areas and small towns.

Discussions in all sessions centred around key issues in rural water supply including:

- Provision of adequate water services for women
- The need for increased funding for purchase of spare parts, continuous monitoring and capacity development
- Empowering communities to engage effectively with government to increase access to water and sanitation
- Sustainable rural and small town water supply and the building blocks necessary to ensure sustainable services
- Ways of strengthening local government capacity
- Supporting citizens and media to hold government accountable and put pressure for better service deliver
(Jane Nabunnya, Country Director – Uganda, IRC)

All the papers, posters, presentations and films are available to download from: https://rwsn7.net/programme/

Thank you to everyone who made the 7th RWSN Forum such a great success. It could only happen with the financial support of the event sponsors (listed on the pages below) and the 440+ participants from 65 countries. Also a huge thanks to tireless teamwork of the:

The Prime Minister, Minister for Economic Infrastructure and Government of Cote d’Ivoire Steering Committee and Local Task Force
Core Organising Team (Dr Kerstin “Mariam” Danert, Sean Furey, Matthias Saladin, Martin Laeng, Violeta Zivanovic and Juerg Christen of Skat Consulting & Skat Foundation), Victor “The Boss” Bas-Martinez (AfDB/Spain ICEX); Meleesa Naughton (The World Bank); Léo Giordano (Independent)
Forum International Task Force (Jochen Rudolph, AfDB; Jose Gesti-Canuto, UNICEF; Erik Harvey & Louisa Gosling, WaterAid; Miguel Vargas-Ramirez, Lilian Pena Pereira Weiss, Susanna Smets, The World Bank; Stef Smits, IRC)
The Forum Security Task Force (Papa Ndour, AfDB; Idrissa Mbaye, UNDSS; Etienne Lawson, Radisson Blu; Franziska Heizmann, Independent; Steen Frederiksen, WaterAid)
All the staff at the Marlyne Kansé and her team at Radisson Blu Abidjan Airport, plus Masterclays (Exhibition Area and poster boards) and Advision (Sound & Vision)
Event Management & entertainment, Renée Kalif Nouama, Claude Ekra, Fatime Touré of Office Pro, and all the ushers, dancers, musicians, bus drivers and other staff that helped make everyone feel welcome.
The fantastic translation team coordinated by Joseph Rurangwa (AfDB)
The 50+ peer reviewers and 200+ authors who made submissions
Master of Ceremony Madame Mariam Coulibaly
Session Managers (Matthias Saladin, Louisa Gosling, Jane Wilbur, Stef Smits, Susanna Smets, Ellen Greggio, Marieke Adank, Joseph Pearce, Nick Dickinson, Jose Gesti-Canuto, Meleesa Naughton, Rob Hope, Susanna Goodall, Julian Harbrecht, Sylvain Adokpo, Miguel Vargas-Ramirez, Lilian Pena Pereira Weiss, John Butterworth) and all the session Chairs and Rapporteurs
The Sponsored Seminar funders and organisers
All the Exhibitors
The people of Soumie village who welcomed the field trip, organised by Basile Djedjro (UNICEF) and Jonas Kobenan (ONEP)
Olivier Mills (CAWST) for the RWSN Forum programme app
and many, many more – thank you all, and apologies if you have been left off this list – please tell us.

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More Information

» Download the content presented at the Forum

» Media coverage and blogs from the 7th RWSN Forum