Mission Statement

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.

Our goals are to:

• assess the state of the world's freshwater resources and ecosystems;
• identify critical issues and problems;
• develop indicators and measure progress towards achieving sustainable use of water resources;
• help countries develop their own assessment capacity;
• document lessons learned and publish a World Water Development Report (WWDR) at regular intervals.

Access the Programme's presentation [Powerpoint - 13,7 MB]

Background

Acceptance of the need for a more people oriented and integrated approach to water management and development has gradually evolved as a result of a number of major conferences and fora. The Mar del Plata Action Plan of the 1977 UN Conference on Water, the Dublin Conference on Water and the Environment and the Rio Earth Summit, with its highly important Agenda 21 document, in 1992 and the World Water Vision exercises have successively reinforced the need for comprehensive assessment of the world's freshwater as the basis for more integrated water management. At the urging of the Commission on Sustainable Development and with the strong endorsement by the Ministerial Conference at The Hague in March 2000, UN Water has undertaken a collective UN system-wide continuing assessment process, the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP).

More about the main water conferences and decisions of the last thirty years, read the Water Milestones 1972 - 2003 : from Stockholm to Kyoto

Rationale for the programme

The growing global water crisis threatens the security, stability and environmental sustainability of developing nations. Millions die each year from water-borne diseases, while water pollution and ecosystem destruction grow, particularly in the developing world. In its Millennium Declaration, the UN called on the nations of the world "to halve by the year 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 supply."

Over the past few decades there has been an increasing acceptance that the management of water resources must be undertaken with an integrated approach, that assessment of the resource is of fundamental importance as the basis for rational decision-making and that national capacities to undertake necessary assessments must be fully supported. Management decisions to alleviate poverty, to allow economic development, to ensure food security and the health of human populations as well as preserve vital ecosystems, must be based on our best possible understanding of all relevant systems.

Currently there is no global system in place to produce a systematic, continuing, integrated and comprehensive global picture of freshwater and its management.

The UN system, through the ACC/SCWR, has the mandate, credibility and capacity to take on the task of systematically marshalling global water knowledge and expertise to develop over time the necessary assessment of the global water situation, as the basis for action to resolve water crises.

Scope of the programme

The WWAP, building on the achievements of the many previous endeavours, focuses on assessing the developing situation as regards freshwater throughout the world. The primary output of the WWAP is the periodic World Water Development Report (WWDR). The Programme will evolve with the WWDR at its core. Thus there will be a need to include:

 - data compilation (geo-referenced meta-databases);
 - supporting information technologies;
 - data interpretation;
 - comparative trend analyses;
 - data dissemination;
 - methodology development and modelling.

The recommendations from the WWDR will include capacity building to improve country-level assessment, with emphasis on developing countries. This will include the building of capacity in education and training, in monitoring and database science and technology and in assessment-related institutional management. The Programme will identify situations of water crisis and will thus provide guidance for donor agencies and will provide the knowledge and understanding necessary as the basis for further capacity building.

The Programme focuses on terrestrial freshwater, but will link with the marine near-shore environments and coastal zone regions as principal sinks for land-based sources of pollution and sedimentation and as areas where the threat of flooding and the potential impact of sea level rise on freshwater resources is particularly acute.

The Programme, including the new WWDR, is undertaken by the UN agencies concerned aided by a Trust Fund, donors providing support in cash and in kind either through specific agencies or through the Trust Fund. UNESCO currently hosts the WWAP Secretariat and manages the FUND at its Headquarters in Paris.

The Programme serves as an "umbrella" for coordination of existing UN initiatives within the freshwater assessment sphere. In this regard it will link strongly with the data and information systems of the UN agencies, for example GRID, GEMS-Water, the Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA) of UNEP, the Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) of WMO, AQUASTAT of FAO, the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC) being established by WMO and UNESCO, the water supply and sanitation databases of WHO and UNICEF and the databases of the World Bank system.

Programme components

The Programme consists of the following coordinated elements:

The WWDR component, involving the preparation of the periodic report and resultant advice, when requested, to governments. The WWDR will include:
 - a thematic component (in the first edition this will focus on developments in water management since the Rio Earth Summit and subsequent editions will include cross cutting themes such as "water and poverty", "water in cities" among other possible themes);
 - a methodological component involving analyses and the production of indicators of water-related stress;
 - a case study component, which will develop an integrated, cross-sectoral methodology and support its progressive dissemination in countries and river basins worldwide.

A Water Information Network comprising:
 - global-scale meta-database;
 - knowledge management systems to facilitate the assessment and dissemination of information;
 - an online library, website and newsletter.

The network will allow communication with governments and water related non-government groups, facilitate capacity building and raise awareness about water.

A capacity-building component, the prime purpose of which is to promote the ability of governments to conduct their own assessments through human resource development, education and training, provision of methodologies, institution and infrastructure development and development of data and information networks.

Specific programme objectives

• Provide an on-going global assessment of the state of the world's freshwater resources and their use.
• Identify and advocate methodologies which have been shown to work well.
• Identify and assess aspects of the state of freshwater resources.
• Identify water management strategies and policies which work well and those which are unsatisfactory and analyzes the reasons for success and failure.
• Compile and synthesize data, information and knowledge on all aspects of water resource assessment.
• Develop mechanisms for the transfer of knowledge and expertise to national governments, decision makers at all levels from local to international, user organizations, academic institutions and the general public, especially in developing countries which are disadvantaged in terms of the availability and quality of data and information, in order to facilitate and improve freshwater assessment.
• Provide advice, on request, to Member States on water-related policies and technical issues at local, national, regional and international levels.
• Provide strong advocacy for changes needed to alleviate distress in disadvantaged regions of the world.
• Build the capacity for countries to make their own assessments through human resource development, education and training, institutional development and the development of appropriate legal and policy instruments.

Benefits of the programme

• Provide, for the first time, a comprehensive process of assessment, from monitoring at the country level, through global database and indicator development, to sectoral and watershed assessment, capacity development and global trend assessment, all leading to a progressively more comprehensive periodic report.
• Provide a framework for coordination and realignment of the existing programmes of ACC/SCWR members to take advantage of synergies, strengthen internal positioning of programmes and improve opportunities for external funding.
• Provide a framework and rationale for strategic investment by prospective donors, targeted to particular components of the WWAP, while emphasizing the magnitude of the task that must be funded.
• Recognize the importance of developing global geo-referenced databases, a comprehensive indicator system and harmonized data standards.
• Recognize the need to develop an effective methodology for such assessments based on river basins and aquifers.
• Address the essential role of countries in providing core national and watershed data for the assessment process.
• Address the critical, continuing need to build or strengthen the capacity in many developing countries to conduct their own assessments.
• Provide a mechanism to systematically address water issues that have been under-emphasized in the past, such as:
   - water quality;
   - aquatic ecosystem degradation;
   - water management economics.
• Provide a prestigious, systematic institutional mechanism for interaction with non-UN partners and with developing-country water institutions in the assessment area;
• Provide a knowledge base that can be used to support other water management and capacity building programmes, within and external to the UN.