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In an effort to help raise the quality of water management expertise worldwide, UN University has authorized for the first time in its 26-year history a diploma to be granted to global graduates of a unique new online training program called the UN Water Virtual Learning Center.

Practising water professionals who complete the 10-course, 250-hour programme on Integrated Water Resources Management will earn an unprecedented diploma bearing the United Nations/UNU insignia.   The program will be offered through affiliated institutions in Africa, Asia and the South Pacific, eventually expanding worldwide.

The heart of this capacity-building program, the fundamentals of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), involves such diverse water topics as science, management, regulatory processes, quantity and quality assessment, treatment, institutional governance and socio-economics.

The curriculum is designed as an undergraduate course for adult professionals, usually with undergraduate degrees but with little or no training in IWRM.  It will be of greatest immediate benefit to engineers, district managers, government administrators and others responsible for water management at the national and regional level who wish to upgrade their knowledge of modern water management concepts and principles. Other individuals may take the course as part of a self-directed learning experience.

It will also be customized to meet regional training needs and interests such as desalination, diminishing glaciers, and the water management problems of small island states.  Planning is underway for delivery to additional centers in South America and the Middle East. Spin-off courses will be created both for non-water professionals (political decision makers and others who need to understand the basics of water management) and for advanced water specialists.

The course has been developed by a prestigious group of water experts over three years at a cost of US$1.6 million from the UN Development Account. UNU International Network on Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) served as principal architect of the course, drawing on information throughout the UN system and other leading global institutions.  The work was guided by an international advisory committee comprised of experts from UNESCO, the Wood’s Hole Institute (USA), Kyoto University (Japan), the University of Waterloo (Canada) and academics in Uganda and Brazil.

“Educational programming like that offered through the UN Water Virtual Learning Center is unique not just within UN University, but the UN system as a whole,” said Prof. Hans van Ginkel, UN Under Secretary-General and Rector of UNU.  “I can think of no international issue more fundamentally important than water management to serve as the subject for the first-ever UN University Diploma Program.”

The course complements UNU’s Global Virtual University, an online environmental educational initiative based in Norway, and represents a very concrete follow-up to the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, which placed water management squarely at the top of international development priorities.

“In 2000, world leaders established the Millennium Development Goal of halving by 2015 the number of people without safe water or sanitation facilities,” said Dr. Ralph Daley, Director of UNU-INWEH.  “It is clear that to meet such an ambitious goal the world needs to train an enormous number of water managers, scientists, engineers and technologists.  This initiative exploits the unprecedented opportunities available through modern technologies to greatly expand global educational opportunities and the availability of authoritative materials, customized to recognize local needs and conditions.” 

PRESS COVERAGE: Agence France-Presse Ottawa Citizen Kitchener Waterloo Record Hamilton Spectator
INTERNET: UN News Centre Terra Daily  Independent Online

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