Established by

Chief Executives Board for Coordination

Year established

2003

Leadership

Secretary-General, WMO, Michel Jarraud (Chair)

UN-Water, was established in 2003 by the United Nations High Level Committee on Programmes, has evolved out of a history of close collaboration among UN agencies. It was created to add value to UN initiatives by fostering greater co-operation and information-sharing among existing UN agencies and outside partners.

UN-Water focuses on: 

  • providing information policy briefs and other communication materials for policy- makers and managers who work directly with water issues, other decision-makers that have an influence on how water is used, as well as the general public 
  • building the knowledge base on water issues through efficient monitoring and reporting systems and facilitating easy access to this knowledge through regular reports and the Internet 
  • providing a platform for system-wide discussions to identify challenges in global water management, analyse options for meeting these challenges and ensuring that reliable information and sound analysis informs the global policy debate on water.