The African Union Heads of State and Government Summit of July 2008, mandated the African Minister’s Council on Water (AMCOW) to annually report on progress made in the implementation of the African Union commitments expressed in the 2008 Sharm El-Sheikh Commitments on water and sanitation taking into account several international agreements, the Africa Water Vision 2025 and the Africa Agenda 2063, as well as Sustainable Development Goal 6 on clean water and sanitation.
In response to this directive, AMCOW in collaboration with the African Union Commission, and with financial support from Africa Water Facility through the Africa Development Bank, developed a web-based reporting system, the Pan-African Water and Sanitation Sector Monitoring and Reporting System (WASSMO) in October 2015. WASSMO is the first ever continent-wide automated web-based system that exclusively captures data on water and sanitation across the 55 Member States of the African Union using harmonised progress indicators. The online platform provides for reporting on seven themes: water infrastructure for growth; managing and protecting water resources; water supply, sanitation, hygiene and wastewater; climate change and disaster risk reduction (DRR); governance and institutions; financing; and information management and capacity development. Associated with the seven themes are 28 sub-themes and 43 indicators. Data can be uploaded by country and by indicator, and the platform can generate regional and sub-regional overviews.
The objective of WASSMO, is to support and strengthen the decision-making processes at national, sub regional and continental level in the water and sanitation sector in Africa. The WASSMO has made good progress towards realising its goal by achieving the following results:
• A continent-wide computerized, harmonised monitoring and reporting system on water development and use developed and adopted by the 55 Member States:
• Two annual reports in 2011 and 2015, on the progress status of water and sanitation in Africa produced and disseminated;
• The water and sanitation sector monitoring and reporting (WASSMO) framework and systems reviewed and adopted by member countries and key sector stakeholders.
• National Coordination Platform established to strengthen the quality of the data reporting into the WASSMO system by Members Countries.
