UN Launches First-ever System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation

TAIWO ISRAEL OPEYEMI

The United Nations has launched the first-ever UN System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation, which aligns the UN system’s work “towards a world with accessible, available and sustainably managed water and sanitation for all people and the planet.” It outlines a system-wide holistic approach to work on the interrelated cross-sectoral aspects of water and sanitation.

The Strategy’s goal is to enhance UN system-wide coordination and delivery of water and sanitation priorities, to support countries in their efforts to accelerate progress on national plans, internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, the realization of human rights, and transformative solutions to current and future challenges for the benefit of all people and the planet. It aims is to fully operationalize inter-agency coordination and to leverage UN development system reforms and upscaled water and sanitation action to provide more strategic, effective, coherent, and efficient support to Member States.

The 68-page Strategy identifies five entry points for collaborative action on water and sanitation:

• Lead and inspire collective action on water and sanitation;
• Engage better for countries by leveraging whole-of-UN system support and by mobilizing stakeholders and partnerships for water and sanitation;
• Align UN system support for the integration of water and sanitation issues across sectors and mainstreaming into intergovernmental processes;
• Accelerate progress and transformational change by unifying UN system support through the five SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) global accelerators – financing, data and information, capacity development, innovation, and governance; and
• Account for progress through joint review and learning.

For each entry point, the Strategy highlights the desired outcomes and outputs.

UN-Water developed the Strategy in response to UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 77/334 of 14 September 2023, which requested the Secretary-General to present a UN System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation in consultation with Member States before the end of the 78th session. The UN-Water Chair led the process, as requested by the Secretary-General. The Strategy was approved by the High-Level Committee on Programmes during its 47th session and endorsed by the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination during its first regular session of 2024.

The Strategy was launched at the fourth annual SDG 6 Special Event on 16 July 2024, held in the margins of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework Country Acceleration Case Studies from Cambodia, the Czech Republic, and Jordan were also launched.