Background
The Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6 (IMI-SDG6) is coordinated by UN-Water and aims to accelerate the achievement of SDG 6 on water and sanitation - "ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030” - through evidence-based policies, regulations, planning and investments. Furthermore, the initiative has the direct purpose of creating the conditions for increasing availability and holistic analysis of high-quality data, to contribute to better informed water and sanitation policy, regulation, planning and investment at all levels by 2030.
IMI-SDG6 is a partnership between eight UN agencies: Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), UN-Habitat, UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The partnership was initially established in 2015 as a joint activity between the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP), the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) and at that time a new partnership, the Global Extended Monitoring Initiative (GEMI). The progressive alignment of the three initiatives was formalized in the creation of IMI-SDG6 in 2018.
Except WMO, all these eight UN agencies are the custodians of one or more SDG indicator and formally mandated to compile country data on the SDG 6 global indicators, depending on their area of expertise. By working together, IMI-SDG6 enables synergies across United Nations organizations as well as a harmonization of methodologies and requests for data, leading to more efficient outreach and a reduced reporting burden.
Background
The Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6 (IMI-SDG6) is coordinated by UN-Water and aims to accelerate the achievement of SDG 6 on water and sanitation - "ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030” - through evidence-based policies, regulations, planning and investments. Furthermore, the initiative has the direct purpose of creating the conditions for increasing availability and holistic analysis of high-quality data, to contribute to better informed water and sanitation policy, regulation, planning and investment at all levels by 2030.
IMI-SDG6 is a partnership between eight UN agencies: Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), UN-Habitat, UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The partnership was initially established in 2015 as a joint activity between the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP), the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) and at that time a new partnership, the Global Extended Monitoring Initiative (GEMI). The progressive alignment of the three initiatives was formalized in the creation of IMI-SDG6 in 2018.
Except WMO, all these eight UN agencies are the custodians of one or more SDG indicator and formally mandated to compile country data on the SDG 6 global indicators, depending on their area of expertise. By working together, IMI-SDG6 enables synergies across United Nations organizations as well as a harmonization of methodologies and requests for data, leading to more efficient outreach and a reduced reporting burden.
Objectives and phases
The initiative has two main objectives: to support countries to collect, analyze and report SDG 6 data, and to support policy- and decision makers at all levels to use this data. Its work plan consists of four phases, lasting until 2030, with progressive shifts in focus:
- Phase 1, 2015-2018: Global baseline setting.
- Phase 2, 2019-2022: Building national ownership.
- Phase 3, 2023-2026: Integrate and mainstream: focuses on coordination and integration at all levels, including deepening analytical work and build further national sustainability by linking it with country-level policy and investment decisions.
- Phase 4, 2027-2030: Consolidate and sustain: will focus on strengthening the sustainability of the monitoring process at all levels and improving its effectiveness.
IMI-SDG6 at FAO
FAO is one of the initiative’s partners and the custodian agency responsible for monitoring target 6.4 that aims at “substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity by 2030”.
The progress towards the goal is followed up and reviewed using two indicators, 6.4.1 on Change in water use efficiency over time and 6.4.2 on Level of water stress: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources.
At FAO, the IMI-SDG6 team supports countries in monitoring and reporting the 6.4.1 and 6.4.2 indicator data and helps to strengthen countries’ capacities in doing this by creating guides, organising trainings, among others. It also develops methodology for contextualized and disaggregated data and information, for better policy-decisions and investments.
The IMI-SDG project at FAO is part of the Land and Water Division.