"We Ministers and representatives of developing African countries, representatives of developed countries, multilateral and bilateral donor agencies, civil society organizations hereby resolve to achieve the Millennium Development Goal for water in Africa by providing sustainable and improved access to water supply and sanitation to the rural population in Africa; Africa has abundant water resources but under utilized and inequitably distributed across the continent.

The result is that one out of every two Africans suffers from inadequate supply of water and sanitation. This inadequacy is particularly serious in the rural areas where about 330 million persons are affected, representing about 55% of the population.

We are convinced that access to water supply and sanitation is vital for the rural populations, in particular for women and children: water supply and sanitation contributes directly to improved hygiene and health and facilitates school enrolment; Africans have mobilized towards meeting this objective; the initiatives undertaken by NEPAD, AMCOW and the African Development Bank testify to this ownership. However Africans alone cannot meet the challenges involved and international official development and investment assistance is far from being sufficient.

The objective today is to support and amplify this African endeavor to provide access to water supply and sanitation to about 80% of the rural population from now to 2015.

We are therefore committed to:

1. Support the African Development Bank’s Initiative for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation in Africa;

2. Mobilize human and financial resources and undertake the required projects to achieve the African Water Vision, which has developed a realistic and progressive process for providing 50% access to water supply and sanitation to the rural population by 2007, 66% by 2010 and 80% by 2015;

3. Include access to water supply and sanitation at the centre of African development strategies: by taking these targets into account in the Poverty Reduction Strategies Papers (PRSP); establish the sector policy framework and integrated resources management plans; support the reforms undertaken in the water supply and sanitation sector with capacity building aimed at more efficient services management;

4. Coordinate our activities at the national and local levels in accordance with the commitments made at the Second High-Level Forum on Enhanced Aid Effectiveness in March 2005: we establish today a regional mechanism for surveillance domiciled at the ADB, for tracking progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals for water and sanitation in Rural Africa and accordingly bring these ideas to the attention of the consultative committee for water to the United Nations Secretary General; we shall put in place a partnership in each country to extol our effort towards this objective.

5. Take into consideration the local needs and demands: we commit to facilitate the participation of local communities in the delivery of services, support the policies of delegated management of water by local government and to promote the demand-responsive approach.

6. Develop innovative financial instruments and facilitate public private partnership suitable for the rural sector.

7. Consult with NEPAD and AMCOW to ensure coordination in order to enhance synergy among existing initiatives.”