29 April 2013: The World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), hosted by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has announced that the theme for the sixth World Water Development Report (WWDR 6) is “Water and Sustainable Development.” WWDR 6 will be launched in 2015, coinciding with the expected conclusion of the post-2015 development agenda process.

The WWDR format was recently changed from a comprehensive triennial report on the state of water development to an annual thematic report. The first of these annual reports (WWDR 5) will be published on the theme “Water and Energy” in 2014, it was announced in October.

The WWAP has been designated by UN-Water to lead report preparation assessing the outcomes of the UN Decade Water for Life and the two associated programmes, UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC) and UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communications (UNW-DPAC). The report is expected to identify success stories, access whether goals have been reached and outline the activities and institutions that implemented those goals.

The WWAP World Water Scenarios project has also been endorsed by UN-Water as an affiliated scheme. Established by WWAP in 2009, the project assesses alternative scenarios for freshwater resources through 2050, aiming to inform sectoral decision-making.

Decisions on the WWDR 6 theme, lead organization for the Decade Report and World Water Scenarios were taken by UN-Water during a meeting of the 30 UN-Water agencies and programmes, which convened in Washington, DC, from 19-21 February 2013. [WWAP Press Release] [IISD RS Sources] [IISD RS Story on New Format, First Theme]