UN-Water Brief, Progress

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UN-WaterBrief, Progress Lessons Learnt
by Pasquale Steduto Chair UN-Water
3rd Meeting Convention on the Protection and Use
of Transboundary Watercourses and International
Lakes Rome, 22 October 2008
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Operating from almost 5 years...
UN-Water, established in 2003, is ' the
inter-agency mechanism for follow up of the WSSD
water-related decisions and the MDGs concerning
water '
....terms of reference
'promoting coherence in and coordination of, UN
system actions complementing and add value to
existing programmes and projects
...facilitating synergies and joint efforts,
...enhancing efficiency and avoid overlaps... '
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Scope of UN-Water

• Freshwater

• Sanitation

• Water-related disasters and extreme events

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How UN-Water works

• It is a coordination mechanism

• Governance
• Senior Programme Managers in charge of water in
  25 UN agencies, funds and programmes
• Rotating chair (2 years)
• Permanent Secretariat
• (UN-DESA)
• Holds biannual meetings

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• UN-Water operates mainly through Task Forces
  addressing thematic initiatives

• Indictors, Monitoring, Reporting

• Transboundary waters

• Climate Change

• Sanitation

• Gender

• National level UN
• Coordination

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• UN-Water activities are implemented by members
  and partners

• UN-Water includes also 4 special programmes

WWAP
JMP
UNW-DPC
UNW-DPAC
UNESCO Perugia
WHO/ UNICEF
UNU Bonn
UNDESA Zaragoza
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Sectors
Agencies
System
FAO
Food production
Integrated Multi-sector Complex
Hygiene and sanitation
WHO
Ecosystems
UNEP
................
.......
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UN-Water Financial Resources
Agencies own resources

• basic interagency coordination

• maintenance of interagency communication

• addressing UN delivering as one

0.3 M per year
Donors resources

• Targeted actions of global relevance

• boosting on-going processes

• responding to emerging issues/specific demands

Italy, Germany, Spain for specific programmes
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Major Outputs

• Policy briefs and Major documents

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• Monitoring Reports

IWRM
World Water Development Report March 2009
WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme Report
May 2008
Global Annual Assessment on Sanitation and
Drinking Water (GLAAS) September 2008
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• Participation to global meetings

...Ongoing

• Key indicators for the whole water-sector trend

• Single entry-point on Water Information System

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Key lessons learnt

• Initial UN-internal commitment is essential

• Encouragement from wider support

• Focus on the significant added values of
  coordination

• Focusing on the drivers behind building efficient
  collaboration

• A shared vision and work programme

• A clear governance structure

• Moving towards results based management

• Communication is a strategic issue

• Support to the key functions

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Issues for consideration
...in summary

• UN-Water is recognized as a modern model of
  coordination mechanism

• slim

• flexible

• cost effective

• adding value

• Sharing experiences

• Improving vertical collaboration and
  internalization

• Utilizing UN-Water to address emerging issues

• The long-term role of UN-Water

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Thank You
www.unwater.org