Sierra Leone has highlighted the importance of strengthening national systems for tracking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) financing as a critical means of accelerating progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6), which seeks to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
Speaking during a session on monitoring SDG 6 Means of Implementation, including financial flows, at the World Water Week on 24 August 2026 in Stockholm, the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Dr. Sao-Kpato Hannah Isatta Macarthy, shared Sierra Leone’s experience in using WASH accounts to better understand how resources are mobilised, allocated and spent across the sector.
She noted that the country’s experience demonstrated that measuring service coverage alone was not enough, stressing the need to understand the financial and institutional conditions that enabled improvements in water and sanitation services. “One of the most important lessons we have learned is that improving implementation begins with understanding the enabling conditions behind implementation,” the Minister said.
Sierra Leone’s first national WASH Accounts, covering 2019 to 2021, were developed under the leadership of the Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation with support from the World Health Organization and other partners.
According to the Minister, the exercise provided important evidence on total sector expenditure, sources of WASH financing, areas of spending and the populations and geographical areas benefiting from investments.
A key finding was that households bear a significant share of the financial burden for WASH services through out-of-pocket expenditure, while government contributions remain comparatively low. “Most importantly, the exercise highlighted that households are carrying a very significant share of the financial burden for WASH services in Sierra Leone,” she emphasised.
The Minister noted that such information was critical for policymakers because monitoring financial flows could reveal financing gaps and help guide decisions on affordability, equity, sustainability and resilience. She added: “Without monitoring financial flows, we might focus only on service coverage levels.”
The WASH Accounts process also brought together the Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation, Ministry of Finance, Statistics Sierra Leone, local governments, utilities, development partners and civil society around a common evidence base, reinforcing the importance of institutional ownership and multi-sectoral collaboration.
Hon. Minister Marcarthy further disclosed that Sierra Leone was preparing for a second round of WASH accounts, with the aim of improving data quality and integrating the findings more systematically into national planning, budgeting and policy dialogue. The intervention also highlighted a July 2026 stakeholders’ inception workshop on SDG 6 monitoring, which brought together national stakeholders to strengthen understanding of the country’s monitoring status and institutional responsibilities and resulted in a roadmap for stronger multi-sectoral collaboration, data use, institutional capacity and digital innovation.
She also stated that Sierra Leone viewed WASH accounts not merely as a financial tracking mechanism, but as part of a broader national effort to monitor the means required to deliver SDG 6, including financing, governance, institutions, resilience and accountability.
The message comes as World Water Week 2026, held from 23 to 27 August under the theme “Water for People and Progress,” brings policymakers, practitioners, researchers and civil society together in Stockholm to address water security, sanitation, inequality and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Minister urged that “if we want to accelerate progress on SDG 6, we must not only measure results. We must also measure the means that make those results possible.” UN-Water has also stressed that credible and timely SDG 6 data are essential for stronger accountability, investment and evidence-based decision-making.
World Water Week 2026 is being held in Stockholm from 23–27 August under the theme “Water for People and Progress.” Organised by SIWI, the event is focusing on water security, safely managed drinking water and sanitation, climate resilience, inequality and progress towards the SDGs. UN-Water’s 2026 SDG 6 monitoring programme likewise emphasises that country-level data is central to accountability, investment and effective decision-making, making Sierra Leone’s presentation particularly relevant to the wider discussions at the event.
