The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sets a series of ambitious challenges for the global community. These Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include targets for access to safe drinking water and sanitation and better water management, as well as goals for addressing inequality and discrimination, including the overarching aims of ‘leaving no one behind’ and ‘reaching the furthest behind first’. These are challenges that, to date, have proven difficult to meet, partly because they are complex, but also due to political inertia. The global context for this agenda may be characterized as ‘crisis is the new normal’, with political insecurity, social, economic and environmental challenges on a daunting scale. This calls for redoubled efforts and carefully selected approaches towards achieving transformative change.The issues underlying both water-related goals and leaving no one behind intersect in several ways. Both water supply and sanitation, and issues of equality for all people and for specific disadvantaged groups in particular, are recognized through international human rights instruments and agreements. However, these have not been enough to bring about the necessary changes. To some extent, the issues share both root causes and similar challenges. The same people who are being left behind are those who could benefit most from improved access to water and sanitation. Improved access to water and sanitation, water management and governance, and the multiple benefits they bring, can contribute significantly to positive transformation for marginalized people. Benefits include better health, savings in time and money, dignity, improved access to food and energy, and greater opportunities in terms of education, employment and livelihoods. These benefits, directly and indirectly, separately and in combination, contribute to improving the lives of all, but can be particularly transformative for people in vulnerable situations. At the same time, engaging with marginalized groups can enhance the achievement and sustainability of water-related goals. This process of engagement can also be transformative in giving a voice to those rarely heard, in turn creating space for vital water-related knowledge and experience that might otherwise be lost.As the sixth in a series of annual, thematic reports, the 2019 edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) examines how improved water resource management and access to water supply and sanitation services can help address the causes and alleviate the impacts of poverty and social inequity. It provides insights and guidance in helping identify ‘who’ is being left behind, and describes how existing frameworks and mandates, such as the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs and human rights-based approaches, can help ‘reach the furthest first’, through improved water management.The report assesses the issues and offers potential responses from technical, social, institutional and financial perspectives, while taking account of the many different challenges faced in rural and urban settings. With the world witnessing the highest levels of human displacement on record, an entire chapter has been dedicated to the exceptional challenges faced by refugees and forcibly displaced people with respect to water and sanitation. We have endeavoured to produce a balanced, fact-based and neutral account of the current state of knowledge, covering the most recent developments, and highlighting the challenges and opportunities provided by improved water management in the context of human development. Although primarily targeted at national-level decision-makers and water resources managers, as well as academics and the broader development community, we hope this report will also be well received by those interested in poverty alleviation, humanitarian crises, human rights and the 2030 Agenda.This latest edition of the WWDR is the result of a concerted effort between the Chapter Lead Agencies, FAO, OHCHR, UNDP, UNESCO-IHP, UN-Habitat, UNHCR, UNU-INWEH, UNU-FLORES, WWAP and the World Bank, with regional perspectives provided by UNECE, UNECLAC, UNESCAP and UNESCWA. The Report also benefited to a great extent from the inputs and contributions of several other UN-Water members and partners, as well as of dozens of scientists, professionals and NGOs, who provided a wide range of relevant material.On behalf of the WWAP Secretariat, we would like to extend our deepest appreciation to the afore-mentioned agencies, members and partners of UN-Water, and to the writers and other contributors for collectively producing this unique and authoritative report that will, hopefully, have multiple impacts worldwide. Léo Heller, Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, deserves specific recognition for having generously shared his knowledge and wisdom in the early critical phases of the report’s production process.We are profoundly grateful to the Italian Government for funding the Programme and to the Regione Umbria for generously hosting the WWAP Secretariat in Villa La Colombella in Perugia. Their contributions have been instrumental to the production of the WWDR.Our special thanks go to Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, for her vital support to WWAP and the production of the WWDR. The guidance of Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD, as Chair of UN-Water has made this publication possible. Last but not least, we extend our most sincere gratitude to all our colleagues at the WWAP Secretariat for their professionalism and dedication, without whom the report would not have been completed.
Nidhi Nagabhatla, Tamara Avellán, Panthea Pouramin, Manzoor Qadir, Pream Mehta, John Payne, et al. (2019). The United Nations world water development report 2019: leaving no one behind - Chapter 2: Physical and environmental dimensions. Parigi : UNESCO.
The United Nations world water development report 2019: leaving no one behind - Chapter 2: Physical and environmental dimensions
Serena CeolaMembro del Collaboration Group
;
2019
Abstract
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sets a series of ambitious challenges for the global community. These Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include targets for access to safe drinking water and sanitation and better water management, as well as goals for addressing inequality and discrimination, including the overarching aims of ‘leaving no one behind’ and ‘reaching the furthest behind first’. These are challenges that, to date, have proven difficult to meet, partly because they are complex, but also due to political inertia. The global context for this agenda may be characterized as ‘crisis is the new normal’, with political insecurity, social, economic and environmental challenges on a daunting scale. This calls for redoubled efforts and carefully selected approaches towards achieving transformative change.The issues underlying both water-related goals and leaving no one behind intersect in several ways. Both water supply and sanitation, and issues of equality for all people and for specific disadvantaged groups in particular, are recognized through international human rights instruments and agreements. However, these have not been enough to bring about the necessary changes. To some extent, the issues share both root causes and similar challenges. The same people who are being left behind are those who could benefit most from improved access to water and sanitation. Improved access to water and sanitation, water management and governance, and the multiple benefits they bring, can contribute significantly to positive transformation for marginalized people. Benefits include better health, savings in time and money, dignity, improved access to food and energy, and greater opportunities in terms of education, employment and livelihoods. These benefits, directly and indirectly, separately and in combination, contribute to improving the lives of all, but can be particularly transformative for people in vulnerable situations. At the same time, engaging with marginalized groups can enhance the achievement and sustainability of water-related goals. This process of engagement can also be transformative in giving a voice to those rarely heard, in turn creating space for vital water-related knowledge and experience that might otherwise be lost.As the sixth in a series of annual, thematic reports, the 2019 edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) examines how improved water resource management and access to water supply and sanitation services can help address the causes and alleviate the impacts of poverty and social inequity. It provides insights and guidance in helping identify ‘who’ is being left behind, and describes how existing frameworks and mandates, such as the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs and human rights-based approaches, can help ‘reach the furthest first’, through improved water management.The report assesses the issues and offers potential responses from technical, social, institutional and financial perspectives, while taking account of the many different challenges faced in rural and urban settings. With the world witnessing the highest levels of human displacement on record, an entire chapter has been dedicated to the exceptional challenges faced by refugees and forcibly displaced people with respect to water and sanitation. We have endeavoured to produce a balanced, fact-based and neutral account of the current state of knowledge, covering the most recent developments, and highlighting the challenges and opportunities provided by improved water management in the context of human development. Although primarily targeted at national-level decision-makers and water resources managers, as well as academics and the broader development community, we hope this report will also be well received by those interested in poverty alleviation, humanitarian crises, human rights and the 2030 Agenda.This latest edition of the WWDR is the result of a concerted effort between the Chapter Lead Agencies, FAO, OHCHR, UNDP, UNESCO-IHP, UN-Habitat, UNHCR, UNU-INWEH, UNU-FLORES, WWAP and the World Bank, with regional perspectives provided by UNECE, UNECLAC, UNESCAP and UNESCWA. The Report also benefited to a great extent from the inputs and contributions of several other UN-Water members and partners, as well as of dozens of scientists, professionals and NGOs, who provided a wide range of relevant material.On behalf of the WWAP Secretariat, we would like to extend our deepest appreciation to the afore-mentioned agencies, members and partners of UN-Water, and to the writers and other contributors for collectively producing this unique and authoritative report that will, hopefully, have multiple impacts worldwide. Léo Heller, Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, deserves specific recognition for having generously shared his knowledge and wisdom in the early critical phases of the report’s production process.We are profoundly grateful to the Italian Government for funding the Programme and to the Regione Umbria for generously hosting the WWAP Secretariat in Villa La Colombella in Perugia. Their contributions have been instrumental to the production of the WWDR.Our special thanks go to Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, for her vital support to WWAP and the production of the WWDR. The guidance of Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD, as Chair of UN-Water has made this publication possible. Last but not least, we extend our most sincere gratitude to all our colleagues at the WWAP Secretariat for their professionalism and dedication, without whom the report would not have been completed.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
