The report highlights the work of existing UN intergovernmental bodies that act as platforms for coordinating country action on water-related issues.
UN-Water warns that the world is not on track to achieve the water-related targets of the SDGs and that effective coordination will be needed in order to accelerate progress.
11 April 2019: UN-Water has published an inventory of water and sanitation work undertaken by 32 UN bodies and 41 partner organizations, including independent entities that are hosted at the secretariats of various UN bodies. The inventory provides an overview of global work on water and sanitation across the whole UN system. The publication is intended to help promote coherence and coordination of activities relating to global goals on water and sanitation, in particular SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) and SDG target 11.5 on water-related disasters.
The 60-page report titled, ‘UN-Water Inventory: An Overview of the UN-Water Family’s Work on Water and Sanitation,’ presents information by the SDG target. It identifies the custodian agencies within the UN system that have the main responsibility for coordinating action on specific targets. For example, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is the custodian agency for SDG target 6.6 on protecting water-related ecosystems.
The report also highlights the work of existing UN intergovernmental bodies that act as platforms for coordinating country action on water-related issues, including the work done under the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention), the Intergovernmental Council for the International Hydrological Programme of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO-IHP), the Ramsar Convention, and the Commission for Hydrology of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
In the report, UN-Water, which acts as the coordinating mechanism for UN system action on water-related issues, reminds readers that the world is not on track to achieve the water-related targets of the SDGs and that effective coordination will be needed in order to accelerate progress. The report identifies coordinating bodies within the UN system that are working to promote action on water at the national, regional and global levels as including the UN-Water Task Force on Country Level Engagement, the Expert Group on Regional Level Coordination, the Task Force on UN High-Level Meetings on Water and Sanitation, and the Task Force on Water Action Decade Implementation. [Publication: UN-Water Inventory: An Overview of the UN-Water Family’s Work on Water and Sanitation] [Publication Landing Page]