December 2017: UN agencies are analyzing country contributions of data on the Sustainable Development Goal on clean water and sanitation (SDG 6) for presentation in a global baseline report. The ‘SDG 6 Synthesis Report’ will be published in June 2018, and will feed into the discussions of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) when it convenes in July 2018. A UN-Water task force made up of UN agency representatives and chaired by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is producing the report, based on contributions of data and information from UN Member States.

At a task force meeting on 10 November, members discussed ways to supplement the data provided by countries, if needed. They considered drawing on earth observation data where other available information is scarce or inconsistent. They also discussed the possibility of going beyond country-level data that may mask disparities, especially in large countries.

The contributing agencies will provide their input towards a draft framework that is being developed by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). In addition to data analysis, the report will reflect qualitative information from case studies and narratives, for example, on governance measures adopted by countries.

The report will support discussions at the HLPF, which reviews a sub-set of SDGs each year. An advance briefing on the content of the SDG 6 Synthesis Report highlighted five emerging themes: the universality of water issues as a concern for all countries; the interdependency of various goals and targets; the need for better water governance, including cross-sectoral cooperation, accessible information, and safeguarding of human rights; financing, capacity development, and technology; and strengthening of data and monitoring systems.

The UN agencies involved in the UN-Water Task Force for production of the SDG 6 Synthesis Report are: the CEO Water Mandate, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO); the International Labour Organization (ILO); UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat); UN-Water Technical Advisory Unit (TAU); UNDP; the UN Environment Programme (UNEP); the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE); UNESCO; the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF); the UN University (UNU); the World Health Organization (WHO); the World Meteorological Organization (WMO); and the World Bank. The development of the SDG 6 Synthesis Report is supported by the Governments of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. [UNESCO Web Page on SDG 6 Synthesis Report] [UNESCO Advance Briefing on Report Production]

Also in November, the UN-Water Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6 organized a global workshop in The Hague, the Netherlands, with country representatives and UN-Water members and partners. The workshop brought countries and UN representatives together to discuss their data collection experiences toward establishing a baseline for SDG 6. The meeting considered the importance of political support and institutional capacity for conducting monitoring, and discussed how to make use of the data generated through the SDG 6 baseline process. Participants also considered preliminary results from the current round of SDG 6 baseline data collection, and discussed how to make links across the national, regional, and global reporting levels. [SDG Knowledge Hub Guest Article on Integrated Monitoring for SDG 6 workshop] [UN-Water Page on Global Monitoring Workshop] [SDG Knowledge Hub Sources]