More than 1000 days have passed since world leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the United Nations. These 17 global goals provide concrete and ambitious targets for countries to address their development challenges. SDG 6, the “Water SDG,” aims to “ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” With its eight individual targets, SDG 6 encourages decision makers to support increasingly integrated solutions. Reaching the SDGs by 2030 will require a significant increase in political, social and financial commitments in order to deliver on the targets.
That’s why, in 2017, the World Bank with its partners launched a new initiative for a water-secure world, the Global Water Security & Sanitation Partnership (GWSP), housed within the World Bank’s Water Global Practice (GP.) Today, the GWSP publishes its first-ever Annual Report Water’s Edge – Rising to the Challenge of a Changing World which provides a snapshot of its first year of delivery.
The report shows how the GWSP is shifting where and how countries invest in water by putting resources behind five priority themes deemed essential to achieving the SDGs – sustainability, institutions, financing, inclusion and resilience. By bringing innovation, new knowledge and evidence, and flexibility to World Bank lending operations, the GWSP helps clients achieve more significant and more sustainable results. The partnership is working where it matters most, on the frontlines of some of the most pressing global crises – drought, conflict, refugees – and at the global level is contributing to key results in 2018:
- 15.7 million people benefitting from water supply and sanitation services
- 11.5 million people benefitting from access to improved sanitation services
- 1.8 million people benefitting from improved irrigation services
- And helping bring solutions to scale, influencing the global debate and enhancing the lending portfolio