Indicator 6.5.1 Degree of integrated water resources management

Indicator 6.5.1: Degree of integrated water resources management

Target 6.5: By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), implemented by the UNEP-DHI Centre on Water and Environment

Definition:

Indicator 6.5.1 is ‘degree of integrated water resources management implementation’. It measures the stages of development and implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), on a scale of 0 to 100, in six categories (see Rationale section). The indicator score is calculated from a country survey with 33 questions, with each question scored on the same scale of 0-100.

The definition of IWRM is based on an internationally agreed definition, and is universally applicable. IWRM was officially established in 1992 and is defined as “a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximise economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.” (GWP 2010).

The method builds on official UN IWRM status reporting, from 2008 and 2012, of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation from the UN World Summit for Sustainable Development (1992).

Concepts:

The concept of IWRM is measured in 4 main sections, each representing key dimension of IWRM:

1. Enabling environment: this includes the policies, laws, plans and strategies which create the ‘enabling environment’ for IWRM.
2. Institutions and participation: includes the range and roles of political, social, economic and administrative institutions that help to support the implementation of IWRM.
3. Management Instruments: The tools and activities that enable decision-makers and users to make rational and informed choices between alternative actions.
4. Financing: Budgeting and financing made available and used for water resources development and management from various sources.

The indicator is based on a national survey structured around these four main sections. Each section is split into two parts: questions concerning the ‘National level’ and ‘Other levels’ respectively. ‘Other levels’ includes sub-national (including provinces/states for federated countries), basin level, and the transboundary level as appropriate. These two parts address the wording of Target 6.5 ‘implement [IWRM] at all levels …’.

Percent (%)

Monitoring progress on meeting SDG 6.5 is owned by and is the responsibility of the national government. The government assigns a ministry with the primary responsibility for overseeing this survey, which then takes on the responsibility of coordinating the national IWRM monitoring and reporting process. As water management issues cut across a wide number of sectors, often overseen by different ministries and other administrative bodies at national or other levels, the process should be inclusive. Major stakeholders should be involved in order to contribute to well informed and objective answers to the survey.

The ministry is invited to nominate a national “IWRM focal point”, who may or may not be a government official. The UN provides support where needed and possible. The following steps are suggested as guidance only, as it is up to countries to decide which process or processes would best serve their needs. It should also be noted that the following steps represent a ‘ladder’ approach, in that completing all the steps will generally lead to a more robust indicator. However, it may not be possible or necessary for all countries to complete all steps.

1. The responsible ministry or IWRM focal point contacts other relevant ministries/agencies to compile responses to the questionnaire. Each possible response option has a score which is used to calculate the overall indicator score.
2. The completed draft survey is reviewed by government stakeholders. These stakeholders could include those involved in water-relevant sectors, such as agriculture, energy, water supply and environment, as well as water management at different administrative levels. This process may be electronic (e.g. via email) and/or through workshops.
3. The revised draft survey is validated at a multi-stakeholder workshop. Apart from government representatives these stakeholders could include water user associations, private sector, interest groups concerned with e.g. environment, agriculture, poverty, and academia. The suggested process is through a workshop but alternative means of consultation e.g. email or online call for public submissions could be considered. Note that steps 2 and 3 could be combined if desired.
4. The responsible ministry or IWRM focal point discusses with relevant officials and consolidates the input into a final version. This version is the basis for calculating the degree of IWRM implementation (0-100) for global reporting.
5. The responsible ministry submits the final indicator score to the national statistics office responsible for compiling all national SDG target data.

Based on the national survey, UN-Water periodically prepares synthesis reports for regional and global levels to provide overall progress on meeting SDG target 6.5.

Temporal Coverage: A reporting cycle of three years is recommended.

The information required to complete the survey is expected to be held by government officials responsible for water resources management in the country, supported by official documentation. E.g. Ministry of Water in coordination with Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Lands and Agriculture, Ministry of Industry and Mining etc. See also ‘data sources’ section above. As a minimum, a small group of officials may be able to complete the survey. However, these government officials may belong to various government authorities, and coordination is required to determine and validate the responses to each question. Increased government and non-government stakeholder participation in validating the question scores will lead to a more robust indicator score and facilitate tracking progress over time.

The challenge of subjectivity in responses associated with this type of survey is being addressed in a number of ways:

1. Draft responses are reviewed by a number of governmental and non-governmental stakeholders in an open, inclusive and transparent process.
2. Countries are encouraged to provide further information to qualify their responses and/or set them in the national context.
3. Guidelines are provided for each of the four main sections, each question, and each of the six thresholds for every single question, to ensure responses are as objective as possible, and are comparable both between countries, and between reporting periods.

To achieve robust indicator results requires a country process involving a wide range of stakeholders which requires a certain amount of time and resources. The advantage of this is that it puts in place a process that addresses the integrated and indivisible nature of the SDG targets, as well as stressing the importance of “leaving no one behind”.

1. The survey contains 33 questions divided into the four main sections described above.
2. Each question is given a score between 0 and 100, in increments of 10, guided by threshold descriptions for the following 6 categories:
   • Very low (0)
   • Low (20)
   • Medium-low (40)
   • Medium-high (60)
   • High (80)
   • Very high (100)
     
     Where question is not applicable, n/a can be selected as a reply, providing adequate explanation.
     
     Note that more question-specific guidance is provided for each threshold for each question, to ensure objective and comparable results.
3. The un-weighted average of the question scores within each of the four sections is calculated to give a score of 0 – 100 for each section, rounded to the nearest whole number. Questions with response n/a are omitted from calculation.
4. The section scores (rounded to the nearest whole number), are averaged (un-weighted), and rounded to the nearest whole number, to give the indicator score, expressed as a number between 0 and 100.

2024-07-29

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

1.4.1, 1.4.2, 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 4.7.1, 5.5.1, 5.5.2, 6.6.1, 6.a.1, 6.b.1, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 8.5.1, 8.5.2, 10.2.1, 11.3.1, 11.3.2, 13.2.1, 13.2.2, 15.9.1, 16.3.1, 16.3.2, 16.5.1, 16.5.2, 16.7.1, 16.7.2

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