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Issue 1: April - June 2000 |
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New Biennial UN World Water Development Report: UNU to Help
Lead Creation of Among efforts to mark World Water Day 2000 (March 22), the UN system announced a major multi-partner initiative to assess and biennially report on the state of the world’s freshwater -- an effort designed to reduce major global information deficiencies and gaps and help nations make better use of life’s most precious resource.
The UN University International Network on Water, Environment and Health will help lead the creation of the World Water Development Report, the central product of a people-centered, comprehensive initiative to help developing countries improve their monitoring, assessment and reporting capacity, with particular focus on water quality, water use, human health impacts and river basin management. In this way, a truly global picture of the state of freshwater and its management will be built up over time. Member of the UN inter-agency Subcommittee on Water Resources, comprised of 24 organizations of the UN system, are core participants in the report. National and international partners, NGOs and other potential contributors are being invited as active collaborators. The first edition in 2002 of the World Water Development Report, The State of the World’s Freshwater Resources will include a global analysis and a progress report on implementation of water-related objectives set in Agenda 21, adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It will also monitor progress in implementation of the Ministerial Declaration of The Hague from the World Water Forum (March, 2000).
Core funding for start up of this new initiative will be provided from a Trust Fund at UNESCO. Contributions to enrich and sustain the initiative will be sought from other national governments and international development agencies. UN agencies will oversee the initiative and produce the report, drawing on an extensive network of experts and specialized databases. "This new UN initiative is important because knowledge is central to efforts to improve the global supply and quality of freshwater," said Hans van Ginkel, Rector of UN University. "By improving global information, we can support and strengthen the human ingenuity needed to save lives today and help avert a predicted water crisis in the 21st Century." The World Water Development Report will be guided by a Steering Committee and administered by a Secretariat, housed at UNESCO, Paris, assisted by the UN University / International Network on Water, Environment and Health. |
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