UN-Water is the United Nations (UN)
inter-agency coordination mechanism for all ...
UN-Water is the United Nations (UN)
inter-agency coordination mechanism for all freshwater related issues. It was
formally established in 2003 building on a long history of collaboration in the
UN family. It currently counts 32 UN agencies and organizations as Members and 41
international Partners. UN-Water complements and adds value to existing UN
initiatives by facilitating synergies and joint efforts among the implementing
agencies. In doing so, UN-Water seeks to: (a) improve the coherence in UN
system actions at all levels, and in particular at the country level; (b)
contribute to the global policy debate on water-related issues through active
participation in global policy fora and events and the production of
assessments and policy briefs; (c) contribute to increased knowledge on
water-related issues through relevant monitoring and reporting mechanisms and
by serving as an entry point for water-related indicators, data and
information; and (d) identify emerging issues related to global water challenges
and provide a platform for UN system strategic discussions on how to prepare
for and cope with them more effectively. For further information: www.unwater.org.
In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, countries have
committed to engage in systematic follow-up and review of progress towards the
17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which calls for robust and credible
monitoring and reporting systems. To track progress towards SDG 6 on water and
sanitation, there are several existing data portals that focus on the different
components of the water cycle, but no one that include data on all of them. To
enable a comprehensive assessment and analysis of the state of water resources
and possible development paths, it is essential to collate all available
information from across stakeholders, in support of an integrated management
approach that helps reduce institutional fragmentation. For this reason, the
SDG 6 Data Portal was developed (from here on also referred to as the “portal”).
The portal brings together data on all the SDG 6 global indicators, as well as
other key social, economic and environmental data, and offers a range of
analytical and visualization tools. It presents the latest snapshot status of
water and sanitation issues, by indicator, by country and by region, while also
allowing the users to explore data on their own through interactive maps, charts
and tables. By doing so, the portal complements existing indicator-specific
data portal, which remains the main choice for more detailed datasets and
functionality.
A key component of the implementation of
global monitoring and reporting on SDG 6 is the establishment of a country
focal point system, bringing together overall and indicator-specific focal
points within a country. In order to manage this system, a Focal Point Database
is being developed (from here on also referred to as the “database”), which
will be used by the Integrated Monitoring Initiative including all the UN custodian
agencies as well as country focal points themselves.