In August 2022, Associate Professor Hidenori Harada of the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies (ASAFAS) was selected to join the Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) of the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene (JMP).
JMP is run by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to promote the sixth of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6), one focused on water and sanitation, by monitoring each country's progress with SDG targets on drinking water, sanitation (toilets and human waste disposal), and hygiene (hand-washing).
SAG is comprised of up to twelve experts and tasked with advising JMP on monitoring, issue identification, and resource mobilization strategies related to water and sanitation coverage at the global, regional, and national levels. Members also serve as advisors for the UN-WATER/WHO Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) project, undertaken for the purpose of informing government policymaking.
Associate Professor Harada has been conducting field-based research over the years across Southeast and South Asia and Africa, addressing a wide range of water- and sanitation-related topics including sustainability of resource-oriented dry sanitation in rural areas, urban sewage and sludge management, and fecal exposure and diarrhea risks in urban slums.
Dr Harada, selected for SAG based on his many years of experience in these fields, is expected to serve a three-year term ending in 2025 as the group's sole Japanese member.
