United Nations System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation

The United Nations System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation (SWS) seeks to unite the UN system’s work towards a world with accessible, available and sustainably managed water and sanitation for all people and the planet. It provides a system-wide approach for UN entities to work collaboratively on water and sanitation.

The goal of this SWS is to enhance UN system-wide coordination and delivery of water and sanitation priorities in support of countries to accelerate progress on national plans and priorities, internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, realization of human rights, and transformative solutions to current and future challenges for the benefit of all people and the planet.

The SWS has been developed by UN-Water in response to General Assembly resolution 77/334, which requested the Secretary-General to present a United Nations System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation strategy in consultation with Member States before the end of the seventy-eighth session. The SWS was approved by HLCP in March 2024 and endorsed by CEB in May of 2024.

The SWS builds on the 2020 SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework.