22 March 2019: On World Water Day, the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) launched an online tool to help countries design plans for achieving SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation). The tool guides users as they undertake a six-step baseline assessment, planning and monitoring process. The tool has the capacity to produce summaries of strengths and weaknesses with regard to six “critical components” of SDG implementation.

The six steps in the self-guided process are: making an inventory of existing national data and knowledge; creating a single, authoritative evidence base that is the agreed reference source; using the evidence base to evaluate strengths and weaknesses in the institutional environment for each of the targets under SDG 6; planning action in collaboration with stakeholders; implementing the plan; and tracking progress.

The “critical components” relate to countries’ capacity to set their own development objectives, their policy coherence and institutional strength, and their ability to define costs and benefits of their plan and the availability of necessary national finances. Other components relate to mainstreaming gender, disaster risk reduction (DRR) and resilience, and integrity of governance.

The online tool is the outcome of a two-year collaboration between UNU-INWEH and the UN Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD), the Korea Environment Corporation (K-eco), the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Environment, and national institutions in Costa Rica, Ghana, Pakistan and Tunisia. It is available on the SDG Policy Support System, a password-protected portal managed by UNU-INWEH in Canada. [UNU Press Release] [SDG Policy Support System]