Niger signed the Maputo Protocol in 2004 but has never ratified it. Its women therefore cannot rely on Article 15 to claim access to clean drinking water. RFLD’s policy brief, Women, Water and Article 15 of the Maputo Protocol, includes Niger among its six case studies and names it as a key advocacy target.
Signed, never ratified
Niger signed the Protocol on 6 July 2004. More than twenty years later, it has not ratified. According to the African Commission’s 2026 Advocacy Framework for Withdrawing Reservations, Niger is one of nine African Union Member States outside the Protocol. The others are Burundi, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Madagascar, Morocco, Somalia and Sudan.
Ratification matters. Once a State ratifies, it must report to the African Commission on the measures it has taken under each article, including Article 15. It must also provide “budgetary and other resources” for implementation under Article 26(2). Without ratification, none of these duties apply.
RFLD’s brief asks States to ratify the Maputo Protocol where this has not yet been done, “in particular Niger and Chad in West and Central Africa”. You can read more about ratification and reservations in RFLD’s country briefs on lifting the reservations.
Very low sanitation coverage
The UN Statistical Yearbook, based on WHO and UNICEF data, gives Niger’s safely managed sanitation coverage as 9.1% in 2024. In towns the figure was 24.4%. In rural areas it was 6.0%. The same table gives no estimate of safely managed drinking water for Niger, a sign of the data gaps that the brief identifies across the region.
Schools are poorly served. UNICEF Niger reports that 22.7% of schools have drinking water and 26.7% have sanitation facilities. It adds that “school-age girls do not have adequate menstrual hygiene management services”.
A right to water that has lost its anchor
Niger was one of the countries in the region with an explicit constitutional right to water. Article 12 of the Constitution of 25 November 2010 recognised a right to potable water, in a list with other basic rights.
That Constitution was suspended in July 2023. The Charte de la Refondation, promulgated by decree on 26 March 2025, now applies. Its Article 12 deals with national languages. The brief could not confirm whether the Charter keeps a right to water anywhere in its text.
The Water Code remains in force. It is Ordinance No. 2010-09 of 1 April 2010.
A good practice on menstrual health
Niger offers one example that other countries could follow. It has built menstrual health into its water and sanitation sector programme, ProSEHA, which runs from 2016 to 2030. The programme tracks two national indicators:
- pupils’ access to menstrual hygiene equipment in schools;
- access to menstrual hygiene equipment in health facilities.
A regional symposium on menstrual health in West and Central Africa, held in 2021, highlighted this approach. It shows that menstrual health can be measured within an existing national water programme.
Displacement and climate pressure
Niger sits in a region under strain. A 2025 paper on displaced women in the Sahel projects nearly 5 million internally displaced people across five Sahel countries by 2024, including about 377,000 in Niger in 2023. Women in Ayorou report that “the increasing distance from water sources has negatively impacted their health”.
Climate change adds to the pressure. A 2022 fact sheet on the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report for West Africa notes that temperatures have risen by 1 to 3°C since the mid-1970s, with the largest rise in the Sahara and the Sahel. The IPCC also finds that water hazards disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, including women.
What RFLD recommends for Niger
The first recommendation is ratification of the Maputo Protocol. It would bring Niger’s women under the protection of Article 15 and give them a route to the African Commission.
In the meantime, the brief’s other recommendations still apply as good practice. Niger can secure a right to water in its new constitutional framework. It can also keep and fund its menstrual health indicators. Women’s organisations in Niger can draw on the African Commission’s Guidelines on the Right to Water in Africa, adopted for States under the African Charter, to press for action now.
About the report
This article draws on RFLD’s report Women, Water and Article 15 of the Maputo Protocol, published on 4 October 2026. Read the summary, download the English edition or the French edition.
