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Matt Damon joins World Bank President, and UN Deputy Secretary-General to open Finance Ministers' Meeting

Anonymous
18 Apr 2017

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The first part of the Finance Ministers’ Meeting on 20 April will be live-streamed, 17:00-17:30 (Eastern Time). Access via https://live.worldbank.org/water-and-sanitation

(Washington DC, 5PM, 18 April 2017) - The SWA partnership’s Finance Ministers' Meeting will be opened by World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, and Academy Award winning actor, screenwriter, producer and humanitarian, Matt Damon. Taking place on 20 April as part of the World Bank’s Spring Meetings agenda, around 30 ministers of finance and representatives from over 40 countries are expected to join. Their focus will be on taking stock of the finance challenge associated with reaching the WASH-related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals – an estimated $114 billion a year for the capital costs alone, according to World Bank figures, how to optimize existing resources, and exploring ways to expand the financing envelope.

The Finance Ministers' Meeting is part of this year’s High-level Meetings which also include a one-and-a-half day Sector Ministers’ Meeting, being convened on 19-20 April by UNICEF and hosted by the Pan American Health Organization in Washington DC. This meeting is expected to be attended by over 50 ministers responsible for the water and sanitation sector, and will focus on the technical challenges which need financing. Both meetings are recognized as bringing valuable opportunities for inter-ministerial dialogue to discuss the real issues to progress, to share ideas, and to find innovative and viable solutions. They are a key milestone in the SWA partnership High-level Political Dialogue process, which delivers much of the basis for success of the meetings through its thorough, inclusive, and country-led preparation and follow-up work.

Mr. Damon will join the opening session of the Finance Ministers’ Meeting in his role as a high-level champion for progress in water and sanitation. Learning about the immense challenges of accessing safe water and sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa, he was inspired to create the H20 Africa Foundation. Then in 2009 he teamed up with Gary White to merge their organizations and launch Water.org.