12 December 2017: UN-Water and the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management organized a global workshop on integrated monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goal on clean water and sanitation (SDG 6). It considered the challenges of gaining adequate baseline data on water policy and practice from around the world, and of monitoring progress. The integrated monitoring workshop took place in The Hague, Netherlands, from 22-24 November 2017, with approximately 120 participants from 75 countries. Many participants came from the UN and other international organizations working on water and sanitation issues.

On the first day, participants heard updates from the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal indicators (IAEG-SDGs) and from SDG 6 custodian agencies on baseline monitoring. They discussed SDG 6 monitoring at the country level. On the second and third days of the meeting, participants discussed monitoring of data on water and sanitation, and ways to improve linkages between national statistical organizations (NSOs) and agencies working on water and sanitation.

Discussants highlighted the need to harmonize reporting across the local, national, regional and global levels. They noted three different types of harmonization: of focal points; of methodologies and metadata; and of data collection processes.

A guest article on the workshop’s outcomes, published by the SDG Knowledge Hub, highlights the emerging methodological improvements and capacity building that are taking place towards SDG 6 monitoring and implementation. [UN-Water Press Release]