United Nations System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation

Description

United Nations System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation

The United Nations System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation (SWS) unites the United Nations system’s work towards a world with accessible, available an sustainably managed water and sanitation for all people and the planet.

It provides a system-wide approach for United Nations entities to work collaboratively on water and sanitation – not as a sector in a “silo”, but holistically to address the interrelated cross-sectoral aspects of water and sanitation.

The goal of this SWS is to enhance United Nations system-wide coordination and delivery of water and sanitation priorities in support of countries to accelerate progress on national plans and priorities, internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, realization of human rights, and transformative solutions to current and future challenges for the benefit of all people and the planet. Its aim is to fully operationalize inter-agency coordination, capitalize on reforms of the United Nations development system, and leverage upscaled water and sanitation action of United Nations entities to provide more strategic, effective, coherent and efficient support to Member States.

Through five entry points for collaborative action, this SWS adds value to the United Nations system’s work on water and sanitation by: strengthening collective leadership, enhancing demand-driven support to countries, improving policy coherence, accelerating progress and transformative change through five Sustainable Development Goal 6 global accelerators (financing, data and information, capacity development, innovation and governance) and strengthening accountability for progress through joint review and learning.

In September 2023, Member States adopted General Assembly resolution 77/334, which requested the Secretary-General to present a United Nations System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation in consultation with Member States before the end of the seventy-eighth session.

The SWS has been developed by UN-Water, the United Nations’ inter-agency coordination mechanism for water and sanitation, under the leadership of the UN-Water Chair, as requested by the Secretary-General. The SWS was approved by the High-Level Committee on Programmes during its forty-seventh session and endorsed by the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination during its first regular session of 2024