Communiqué

On 20 August 2026, the participants of the Africa Water and Sanitation Systems Leadership Symposium — ministers responsible for water, sanitation, finance, planning and environment; mayors; regulators; utility executives; financiers; civil society; and young water professionals — adopted the Kigali Symposium Communiqué on Systems Transformation towards the Implementation of the Africa Water Vision 2063 and Policy.
 

Meeting in the African Union's Year of Water, and months after the launch of the Africa Water Vision 2063 and Policy, the Communiqué affirms that closing Africa's water and sanitation access and investment gaps requires strong leadership, effective governance, accountable institutions and robust regulation — and that the Symposium's four pillars, leadership, regulation and accountability, professionalisation, and strategic public finance, must advance together.
 

The Communiqué sets out what each constituency commits to deliver, from transparent utility performance to regulatory oversight extended to rural and small-town services. It calls on Heads of State to champion the water security agenda, on governments to treat water as a strategic asset in national economic planning, and on financiers to back viable projects with guarantees, risk-sharing and blended finance. It further requests the African Union Commission and AMCOW to carry an Africa Common Position to the 2026 UN Water Conference in Abu Dhabi and the 11th World Water Forum in Riyadh.
 

The next edition of the Symposium will be hosted by the Republic of Benin in 2028.