Division for Sustainable Development
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Interagency Activities
UN Water - United Nations Interagency coordination
The United Nations System Chief Executive Board for
Coordination (CEB), on the recommendation of its High-level Committee on
Programmes (HLCP), endorsed
UN Water in 2003 as the new official United
Nations system-wide inter-agency mechanism for follow-up of the
water-related decisions reached at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development 2002 and the Millennium Development Goals.
UN-Water's Objective
UN Water's objective is to facilitate effective support to Member States towards their achievement of water and sanitation-related, time-bound goals, targets and actions as agreed by the international community.
To this end, UN Water acts at global, regional and country levels by:
- building on and adding value to the work and expertise of UN agencies and programmes, ensuring coherence and integration among them and serving as a common voice of the UN system on water and sanitation;
- facilitating communication and cooperation with external partners and
- providing timely, policy-relevant information on status and trends of the world's freshwater resources.
UN Water is also responsible for organizing the annual United Nations World Water Day (WWD - 22 March) (click here for the WWD 2009) and the United Nations Decade on Water 2005 - 2015.
United Nations System Chief Executives Board
Until 2001, the former ACC Subcommittee on Water Resources served as focal point for United Nations system-wide coordination in the area of water resources. The ACC machinery has been replaced by the United Nations System Chief Executives Board (CEB) for Coordination.