Questions people ask about how the UN works with countries on water

Today, there is strong commitment among many governments to leverage water as a catalyst for progress across sustainable development — particularly in health, education, gender equality, jobs, food, energy, and climate resilience.

To help countries advance on Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) — safe water and sanitation for all — UN agencies and international partners provide coordinated support to meet specific national needs.

The overarching aim is to help strengthen national systems and foster integrated approaches, so that more people can benefit from safe water and sanitation, and the wider social, economic and environmental impacts can be realized.

Here are some of the questions people are asking us about how the UN works with countries on water.

Why are countries looking for more support on water?

In many countries, weaknesses in national water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems are limiting access to safe water and sanitation services, with significant impacts on health, education and livelihoods, and economic resilience.

The latest evidence shows that persistent gaps in funding, staffing and oversight are holding countries back.

• Nearly 90% of countries have WASH policies and plans — yet only 13% have sufficient financing or human resources to implement them.
• Official development assistance (ODA) commitments for water and sanitation have fallen by 9% since 2022, far more than the overall decline in ODA.

At the same time, support for water is often fragmented across sectors and institutions.

Check out ‘Questions people ask about water, sanitation and hygiene systems’.

Who is responsible for water within the UN system?

There is no single UN entity dedicated exclusively to water and sanitation. Instead, water and sanitation issues cut across many parts of the UN’s work.

This is why UN-Water exists. As the UN’s coordination mechanism for water and sanitation, UN-Water helps bring together 36 UN organizations with water and sanitation in their mandates (Members), and 54 international organizations (Partners), to support countries in a more coordinated and coherent way.

Under the UN System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation, the UN system has committed to unifying and maximizing assistance for countries.

This means different parts of the system working together more closely to combine expertise, skills and assets to help governments advance their national water-related priorities and goals.

How does UN-Water support countries?

Driven by demand, and tailored to national priorities, UN-Water works with governments and with UN Country Teams (UNCTs) in three main ways:

1. Integrating water into country action plans, for example on climate change, biodiversity, desertification and sustainable development.
2. Connecting countries with expertise and initiatives from across the UN system and partners.
3. Strengthening coordination of policies and programmes, across sectors and institutions, linked to water and sustainable development.

To support these efforts, UN-Water also provides periodic seed funding to UNCTs, and helps strengthen partnerships that can unlock additional technical and financial support.

Our work is funded through the generous contribution of our donors.

What does this support look like in practice?

UN-Water has a range of initiatives to help countries strengthen the systems, capacities and partnerships needed to accelerate progress on SDG 6.

The UN-Water SDG 6 Capacity Development Initiative (CDI) helps countries strengthen the long-term capacities needed to plan, coordinate and deliver water and sanitation services more effectively.

The CDI follows a country-led process:

• Country requests for support from UN-Water
• Identification of priorities and stakeholders
• Integrated high-level workshop to identify priorities
• Assessment of capacity gaps
• Development of national capacity development plan and targets
• Coordinated implementation through CDI members
• High-level follow-up and evaluation

The UN-Water Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6 (IMI-SDG6) supports countries in compiling country data for SDG 6 progress reports, the SDG 6 Data Portal, and for their own national targets, helping strengthen national monitoring systems.

The UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) provides decision-makers with data on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems, highlighting national trends, progress and gaps.

Explore the full range of UN-Water’s country engagement activities.

How is the UN’s support for countries evolving?

Through the Collaborative Implementation Plan 2025-2028, the UN system is creating more effective partnerships that align expertise, financing, monitoring, capacity development and country-level coordination around national priorities.

More and better country support will also be a central theme of the in-depth review of SDG 6 at the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in July, and the 2026 UN Water Conference in December, which will bring together the UN system, international partners and UN Member States to focus on accelerating implementation.

In this pivotal year for water at the UN, follow developments at www.unwater.org and on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and X.