GLAAS Report 2012: UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water

the objective of the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) is to monitor the inputs required to extend and sustain water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems and services. This includes the components of the “enabling environment”: documenting government policy and institutional frameworks; the volume, sources and targeting of investment; the sufficiency of human resources; priorities and gaps with respect to external assistance; and the influence of these factors on performance. A more challenging secondary goal is to analyse the factors associated with progress, or lack thereof, in order to identify drivers and bottlenecks, to identify knowledge gaps, to assess strengths and weaknesses, to identify challenges, priorities and successes, and to facilitate benchmarking across countries

This second1 UN-Water GlAAS report presents data received from 74 developing countries, covering all the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) regions, and from 24 external support agencies (eSAs), representing approximately 90% of official development assistance (oDA) for sanitation and drinking-water.

There have been remarkable gains in WASh. The 2012 progress report of the World health organization (Who)/ United Nations children’s fund (UNicef) Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) announced that the MDG target for drinking-water was met in 2010: the proportion of people without access to improved drinkingwater sources had been more than halved (from 24% to 11%) since 1990. however, the progress report also noted that the benefits are very unevenly distributed.