World Water Assessment Programme
The United Nations World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) monitors the world’s freshwater resources. WWAP provides recommendations, develops case studies, enhance assessment capacity at a national level and inform the decision-making process. Founded in 2000, it is the flagship programme of UN-Water and is housed in UNESCO.[1]
Its primary product, the UN World Water Development Report, is a periodic, comprehensive review providing an authoritative picture of the state of the world’s freshwater resources.
Background
In 1998, the Sixth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development stated that there was a need for regular, global assessments on the status of freshwater resources. In response to this recommendation, the member organizations of UN-Water (known then as the ACC Subcommittee on Water Resources) decided to produce a UN World Water Development Report every three years, with an aim to reporting on the status of global freshwater resources and the progress achieved in reaching the Millennium Development Goals related to water. The World Water Assessment Programme was created to serve this purpose.
Activities
WWAP is the reporting mechanism of UN-Water. It produces the UN World Water Development Report (WWDR) and related materials, policy papers based on the findings of the WWDR, and a series of side publications.[2]
One of WWAP’s objectives is to assist countries in enhancing their national capacity for water resource assessment. One of the ways WWAP does this is by facilitating the development of case studies and including their findings in the WWDRs. These case studies provide an in-depth analysis of the state of freshwater resources and related challenges that directly affect the livelihoods of people around the world.[3]
WWAP is the coordinating organization for UN-Water’s Task Force on Indicators, Monitoring and Reporting.[4]
The ‘From Potential Conflict to Cooperation Potential’ (PCCP) program contributes to WWAP and is housed within UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP). PCCP facilitates multi-level dialogue in situations where water users need support to manage their shared water resources in a peaceful and equitable manner.[5]
Reports
UN World Water Development Report 3: Water in a Changing World (2009) http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr/wwdr3
Related Materials:
UN World Water Development Report 2: Water: A Shared Responsibility (2006) http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr/wwdr2
Related Materials:
UN World Water Development Report 1: Water for People, Water for Life (2003) http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr/wwdr1
Related Materials:
Other publications
Side Publications series
These publications provide more focused, in-depth information and scientific background knowledge on the world’s water issues, and a closer look at some less conventional water sectors. http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr/wwdr3/side_publications.shtml
See also
- UN World Water Development Report
- UN-Water
- UNESCO
- Millennium Development Goals
- The UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC)
- Water for Life Decade The United Nations Office to Support the International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’ 2005-2015 (UNO-IDfA)
References
- ↑ http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap
- ↑ http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr/
- ↑ http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr/wwdr3/case_studies/
- ↑ http://www.unwater.org/TFindicators.html
- ↑ http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/pccp/