1. WATER IN THE WORLD WE WANT
POLICY AND PLANNING FOR ACCELERATED SGD SUCCESS
IWRA XVI World Water Congress, Cancun, Mexico, 29 May – 1 June 2017
Costa Rica
Pakistan
Tunisia
Ghana

2. ACCELERATING WATER-RELATED SDG SUCCESS: needs, gaps, risks and actions
VLADIMIR SMAKHTIN
United Nations University,
Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), Hamilton, ON, Canada
IWRA XVI WORLD WATER CONGRESS, CANCUN, MEXICO, 29 MAY – 1 JUNE 2017
SESSION “WATER IN THE WORLD WE WANT: POLICY AND PLANNING FOR ACCELERATED SGD SUCCESS”

3. INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT TO NATIONAL SDG PROCESSES
Need enabling environment (EE) - a set of interrelated political, legal, institutional, financial… conditions that help bring about sustained and effective change.
All LMIC make water-related policies. But it is difficult to fully implement and enforce them in low-resource or insecure settings
International support for national EE is critical for water-related SDG progress
Many types of such support are emerging within and outside the UN system at international level
SDG 6
Other water-related SDGs
National enabling environment
International enabling environment
Blue – SDG 6
Green –other water-related SDGs

4. WHY SUPPORT TO NATIONAL PROCESSES NEEDED NOW?
Every 3 years of inaction will mean the amount of effort needed to succeed will increase exponentially (Stuart et al. 2016)
To achieve SDG target 6.2, global progress will need to exceed current trends by almost 4 times (Nicolai et al. 2015).
Capital investments must increase by 3 times to achieve the targets 6.1 and 6.2 (Hutton & Varughese 2016)
In many countries, National targets for SDG 6.3 to 6.6 are currently poorly defined, and the costs and resources needed to achieve them are unknown
(Stuart et al. 2016)
(Nicolai et al. 2015)

5. INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT TO NATIONAL PROCESSES
Risk that International initiatives:
May not provide practical support to all country contexts
May overlap or become fragmented
May not support integrated sustainable development of all water-related SDGs
Green – all “water-related” initiatives
Blue- only those that relate to SDG6 itself.
IAEG finalized SDG 6 indicators as well as all other indicators (so – both SDG6 and beyond) . 
Integrated monitoring initiative (IMI) encompasses all SDG-related monitoring initiatives: GEMI, JMP and GLAAS are all encapsulated under IMI.
IAEG and HLPF are focusing on SDG6 but not exclusively.

6. NATIONAL PROCESSES: GAPS AND RISKS - 1
Gender
DRR
Target: access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations
Indicator: Proportion of population with safely managed sanitation services...
Gap 1: Between aspirations captured in the SDG 6 targets, and the deliverables articulated in the indicators against which countries will be tracked
Risk: As the sum of all SDG 6 indicators does not add up to the sum of all targets, important sustainability issues can be missed by countries
Example: Target 6.2 explicitly mentions women and girls, and vulnerable groups, but Indicator makes no reference to these groups; hence it is not measured.
From each level of SDG6, the key words are taken

7. NATIONAL PROCESSES: GAPS AND RISKS - 2
Integrity
RRR
Policy & Institu-tional
Gender
Capacity
Finance
enabling environment
Means of implementation
Implementation
Monitoring & evaluation
Follow-up and review
Sustainability and equity
Gap 2: Between what is measured / reported and what the key sustainable achievements of countries might be
Risk: As the sum of all SDG 6 targets do not add up to water-related sustainability, important sustainability gains can be achieved or missed by countries while not being tracked or reported.
Examples:
Target 6.6 -“By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems…” – has only one indicator, on extent: achieving increased extent may mean the target is met, but this alone cannot mean ecosystem sustainability is reached. Critical components of ecosystem protection including capacity building water integrity and policy, regulatory and financial frameworks can ensure sustainability but are not measured in the SDGs.
A link between SDG and its target
Three components an lead to sustainabilty
The same issue as in MDGs era, e.g. water infrastructure: they ticked that they reached target but most of water supply systems were not operational.
You can tick all targets but you will not ensure sustainable development.

8. CRITICAL ACTIONS FOR SUSTAINABILITY - 1
Action 1. At national level, agree that a structured, multi-agency approach is needed to ensure the progress with SDG 6, including evidence-based policy and planning for implementation, in support of indicator monitoring and reporting

9. CRITICAL ACTIONS FOR SUSTAINABILITY - 2
Action 2. At national level, agree on what needs to be known, understood and tracked in the enabling environment – what components are critical
6 such components are proposed
Why:
supported by extensive literature
supported by countries‘ consultations
supported by at least one toolkit, indicator checklists or methodology developed by an international agency, relevant to all SDG 6 targets
They are currently being contextualized for national and regional use in ongoing trials in Tunisia, Ghana, Costa Rica, Pakistan and Korea.
Why these 6?:
the importance of these to sustainable water-related development are supported by extensive literature
These were also supported by consultations with several countries participating in the project; you will hear from the two of them today
each theme is supported by at least one toolkit, indicator checklists or methodology developed by an international agency, which is relevant to all SDG 6 targets and which can be or has already been adapted to an SDG context
Countries might add to or subtract from these 6 to suit national contexts,; these components have been categorised in different ways in recent discourses But overall, these themes could be considered as a minimum standard
Go through each of these briefly.
E.g. Capacity development is a complex process directed at the enhancement of skills, values and knowledge that enable individual roles in achieving water-related development goals.
Etc – see other notes in word…

10. CRITICAL ACTIONS FOR SUSTAINABILITY - 3
Action 3. Using international support, create one, agreed evidence base that shows a baseline for critical components and allows national-level tracking of progress against all sustainability-critical components
SDG Policy Support System (PSS) to support national enabling environments – developed
SDG PSS is focused on SDG6 and 6 components that are critical for sustainability, but can be expanded to other goals and other areas critical to national sustainable development.
Not another monitoring tool, but a concept and a system to ensure sustainability, possible during planning and preparation for the enabling environment.

11. Critical Actions for Sustainability
Although monitoring indicators is key, really initiating water-related sustainable development and leaving no-one behind will be about a strong enabling environment for sustainability.
- What do different countries aspire to, not just for SDG indicators, but for water- related sustainable development?
- How will water-related planning and policy making for implementation link social, environmental and economic priorities?
- How will water-related agencies plan for the interlinkages and conflicts between the targets of SDG 6?
- How will water-related agencies plan for the interlinkages and conflicts between different SDGs?

12. The project and how it could help
International SDG processes
Enabling Environment: evidence- based policy
National SDG aspirations
Enabling components agreed
One evidence base (SDG PSS)
Collaborative policy and planning
Regional and international leadership
Other SDGs

13. Enabling Components Agreed
Capacity
Finance
Policy & Institutional
Gender
DRR/
Resilience
Transparency

14. The project and how it could help
International SDG processes
Enabling Environment: evidence- based policy
National SDG aspirations
Enabling components agreed
One evidence base (SDG PSS)
Collaborative policy and planning
Regional and international leadership
Other SDGs

16. The trial SDG Policy Support System
Integrated Monitoring Initiative
UN-Water
GLAAS, WHO/UNICEF
WASHCost
IRC
Toolkit for Integrity OECD
Gender Toolkit WWAP
Sendai Framework for DRR UNISDR
Data
Water-related SDG
targets and indicators
SDG Policy Support System
Automatic synthesis, analysis
evaluation & assessment
Evidence
National Collaboration
International Collaboration
National Evidence-based policy

17. The project and how it could help
International SDG processes
Enabling Environment: evidence- based policy
National SDG aspirations
Enabling components agreed
One evidence base (SDG PSS)
Collaborative policy and planning
Regional and international leadership
Other SDGs

18. Data Automatically Translated into Evidence

19. Data Automatically Translated into Evidence
Drawing previously discrete tools and results together, decision makers and experts can see a more holistic picture of the enabling environment
If little or no real evidence on one component – for example, gender – is available at national level, this may help advocacy and prioritisation for the Government
One agreed, and therefore authoritative, evidence based for sustainability-critical components will allow more informed planning and policy making.

20. What are the innovations in the SDG PSS?
Mechanism for collaboration between experts and policy makers, from all water-related sectors
It automatically translates existing data into fit-for-policy evidence
If one evidence base for SDG 6 is collaboratively built, it will be authoritative
Lots of tools are invested in, but not pulled together for more value for money: the PSS can do that.
Most of the international and national initiatives and tool that collect data for the water sector that are in wide use now were designed before the SDGs were finalised. In making an evidence base defined at an SDG target or indicator level, this means that tools have to be used selectively and carefully, and indicators may have to be adapted.

21. What are the challenges in using the SDG PSS?
Most international tools pre-date the SDGs
Many international tools are WASH focused in 2017: what about SDG 6.3 to 6.5?
The PSS aims to be holistic and integrated, but…
Uncertainty and margins of error
Most of the international and national initiatives and tool that collect data for the water sector that are in wide use now were designed before the SDGs were finalised. In making an evidence base defined at an SDG target or indicator level, this means that tools have to be used selectively and carefully, and indicators may have to be adapted.