The World
Water Development Report (WWDR): A collective UN input
The World Water Development Report (WWDR)
is a periodic, comprehensive review giving an authoritative picture of the state
of the world's freshwater resources, and aiming to provide decision-makers with
the tools for sustainable use of our water.
Coordinated by the World
Water Assessment Programme, the Report is the result of the collaboration of
twenty-three UN agencies and convention secretariats and lays the
foundations for regular, system-wide monitoring and reporting by the UN,
together with development of standardized methodologies and data.
The first edition of this
report, Water for People, Water for Life, was launched on World Water
Day (March 22nd) at the
Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan.
The World Water
Development Report is part of an ongoing assessment project to measure
progress towards achieving the goal of sustainable development formulated at Rio
in 1992, and the targets set down in the UN Millennium Declaration of 2000. The
international community pledged:
- to halve by 2015 the proportion of people who
are unable to reach, or to afford, safe drinking water; and
- to stop the unsustainable exploitation of
water resources, by developing water management strategies at the regional,
national and local levels, which promote both equitable access and adequate
supplies.
Reports and Associated Documents of Relevance to the
WVLC
This UN-wide programme
seeks to develop the tools and skills needed to achieve a better
understanding of those basic processes, management practices and
policies that will help improve the supply and quality of global
freshwater resources.
The
United Nations system
is complex. It is not easy to explain what each agency and programme
does, since each one has its own priorities and procedures.
Nevertheless, all of the organizations listed below have endorsed the
goals of the World Water Assessment Programme and the publication of
the biennial
World
Water Development Report. Under this common banner they have
agreed to work together - sharing information, knowledge and know-how
- to improve our understanding of the policies and practices that
encourage sustainable use of water resources.
To help you find your way through this
complex worldwide effort, we have tried to summarize some of the main
water-related activities
of each partner agency, as well as the list of the
WWAP
challenges to which it is most closely allied.
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 United Nations Funds and Programmes
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'to advocate
for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their
basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their
full potential'
Water Supply and Sanitation
Monitoring System (joint Programme with WHO)
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'to help countries in
their efforts to achieve sustainable human development by
assisting them to build capacity to design and carry out
development programmes, giving first priority to poverty
eradication'
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Global
Water Partnership (GWP)
Funded by UNDP, it provides information and links to ongoing
events and relevant actors in Integrated Water Resources
Management.
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'to provide leadership and
encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring,
informing and enablishing nations and people to improve their
quality of life without compromising that of future generations'
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'to lead and coordinate
international action for the worldwide protection of refugees and
the resolution of refugee problems'
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Specialized United Nations Agencies |
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'to raise levels of nutrition
and standards of living, to improve agriculture productivity and the
condition of rural populations'
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- Water resources, development and management for agriculture :
A focus on sustainable use and conservation of water in
agriculture. It assesses water resources and monitors agricultural
use; assists in water policy formulation and promotes irrigated
agriculture, efficient water use and mitigation of adverse
environmental effects through management innovations,
modernization and institutional reforms.
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'to serve as the world's central
inter-governmental forum for scientific and technical cooperation in the
nuclear field'
Isotope Hydrology Section
The International Atomic Energy Agency aims to improve the
availability and use of hydrological information through the
application of isotope techniques. The Agency's programme in water
resources supplements global efforts for sustainable resource
management by assisting its Member States in hydrolgoical data
gathering and analysis, such as the origin, occurrence, and
replenishment of water resources, training and capacity building,
information exchange, and technical cooperation.
World Water
Day 2002
IAEA was the UN agency for the 2002 celebration of World Water Day,
under the theme 'Water for Development'
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'to reduce
poverty and improve living standards through sustainable growth and
investment in people'
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(a joint initiative with UNEP and
UNDP)
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Water and Sanitation
Program
International partnership of the world's leading development
agencies concerned with water and sanitation services for the
poor, administered by the World Bank.
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'to contribute to
peace and security in the world by promoting collaboration among
nations through education, science, culture and communication'
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'to improve the living conditions
of people and promote global prosperity through offering tailor-made
solutions for the sustainable industrial development of developing
countries and countries in transition'
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Sanitation Connection
A world wide web-based resource intended to facilitate access to
information on sanitation, administered by the WHO.
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'to facilite international
cooperation in the establishment of networks of stations for making
meterorological, hydrological and other observations; to promote the
rapid exchange of information'
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Other UN Entities
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'to promote socially and
environmentally sustainable human settlements development and the
achievement of adequate shelter for all'
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A Programme managed by UN-HABITAT
with funding from the Asian Development Bank. |
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'to contribute,
through research and capacity building, to efforts to resolve the
pressing global problems that are the concern of the United Nations and
its member states' |
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Economic and Social Council
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Secretariat for the
Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), which is responsible for
follow-up to Agenda 21 of The United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development (UNCED 1992) |
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United Nations Regional Commissions
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- Secretariats of
United Nations Conventions and Decades
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'to combat desertification
and poverty'
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'to promote
nature and human well-being'
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'to protect the climate
system for present and future generations'
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'to enable all societies
to become resilient to the effects of natural hazards and
related technological and environmental disasters, in order to
reduce human, economic and social losses'
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