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World Water Assessment Programme

Understanding the state, use and management of the world’s freshwater resources and designing better water policies

UNESCO established the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) in 2000 in response to a call from the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) to produce a UN system-wide periodic global overview of the status, use and management of freshwater resources.

Its overall objective is “to meet the growing requirements of UN Member States and the international community for a wider range of policy-relevant, timely and reliable information in various fields of water resources developments and management, in particular through the production of the United Nations World Water Development Report (UN WWDR)”. Consequently, WWAP, through the World Water Development Reports and complementary activities, aims to equip water managers and policy- and decision-makers with knowledge, tools and skills necessary to formulate and implement sustainable water policies.

Since 2007, UNESCO WWAP is funded by the Government of Italy.