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Water and Sanitation Programme
Supporting three regional programmes through the Water and Sanitation Trust Fund

UN-HABITAT's Water and Sanitation Trust Fund supports three regional programmes: Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The objective of the regional programmes is to support partner countries to improve access to and the management of urban water supply and sanitation. These programmes combine policy and normative work with on-the-ground pilot and demonstration projects focusing on pro-poor water and sanitation service delivery. UN-HABITAT has been supporting countries in the region towards a chieving the Millennium Development Goal target of reducing to half, by 2015, the number of people who do not have access to clean water and basic sanitation.

The impacts of UN-HABITAT's global water and sanitation activities are summarized below:
i) Institutional capacity has increased in partner countries. As a result of capacity-building and training programmes, a number of water and sanitation utilities have registered, over the last five years, major improvements in their key performance indicators, with revenues increasing by over 60 percent and unaccounted-for water reducing by over 20 percent.
ii) The flow of investment to the water and sanitation sector has increased. Partnering with regional development banks and multilateral financing institutions (African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, European Investment Bank, and the World Bank) has ensured that the innovative approaches and solutions demonstrated through Water and Sanitation Trust Fund activities are linked to large-scale investments. Collaboration between UN-HABITAT and the regional development banks on key pre-investment activities has greatly improved project design and significantly reduced the project preparation process and the appraisal period. The most successful collaborations have had both parties involved at all stages.
iii) Millennium Development Goal monitoring mechanisms have improved. UN-HABITAT's water and sanitation monitoring work focuses on improving the quality of monitoring data so that it can contribute more effectively to Millennium Development Goal monitoring while also informing local decision making and project evaluation. These efforts have improved the relevance of collected data (for example, by including geo-referencing, socio-economic indicators, physical features, and citizen feedback), reduced the cost of data collection, increased the capacity to collect data, made data more publicly available, and trained people to access data and apply it to decision making.

Water for Asian Cities Programme and Mekong Regional Water and Sanitation Initiative
Reaching out with a pro-poor focus to over one million people

The Asia and Pacific region is home to the majority of the world's poor. Of the 2.6 billion people lacking access to sanitation, 72 percent live in Asia, and of the 884 million relying on unimproved sources of drinking water, more than half also live in Asia. Rapid urbanization in this region has put enormous pressure on the living environment, including already strained fresh-water resources. Climate change further threatens the adequate provision of water and sanitation.

These programmes promote community-based water and sanitation projects, strengthened water and sanitation governance to benefit the poor, gender mainstreaming in water and sanitation, a rights-based approach to water, and a human values-based approach to water, sanitation, and hygiene education. Currently, the programmes cover India, Cambodia, China, Nepal, Laos, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Pakistan. Since 2003, UN-HABITAT has worked in close collaboration with the Asian Development Bank to raise political awareness, build capacity, and create an enabling environment for pro-poor investments in water and sanitation in Asian cities.

So far, it is estimated that these programmes have reached over one million people with improved water supply and sanitation. In addition, they have influenced policy at the national level in some of the participating countries. Ongoing activities under the Mekong initiative target improving water supply for over 120,000 people and improving access to sanitation for over 210,000 people, part of a larger objective of improving access to water and sanitation for over 1 million people in the Greater Mekong subregion. Over the next five years, UN-HABITAT aims to reach out to an additional one million people.

Water for Cities in Latin America and the Caribbean Programme
Reaching out through partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank

Water for Cities in Latin America and the Caribbean is a regional initiative, created in response to the Americas´ Regional Preparatory Process for the 4th World Water Forum, 2006, and in response to the forum itself. A strategic partnership has been forged with the Inter-American Development Bank to enhance pro-poor and sustainable investments in water and sanitation in the urban areas of Latin America and the Caribbean and thereby support the countries to achieve the water and sanitation-related Millennium Development Goal. Different forms of cooperation between the bank and UN-HABITAT are being formalized in Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and El Salvador. The programme relies on partnerships among different agents: donor countries, central governments, local authorities, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and local communities.

The programme has the following tasks:

• Support for central and local authorities in the pursuit of the water-related Millennium Development Goal
• Support for institutional development
• Strengthening of water education and water culture, with special emphasis on themes related to public health, hygiene, and water resource conservation
• Support for the institutionalization of more participatory, transparent, and accountable water governance
• Mainstreaming adaptation to climate change
• Strengthening of water and sanitation providers Resources

Water for African Cities Programme
Improving water services in 17 cities in 14 African countries

Since 1999, the Water for African Cities Programme has been supporting African cities to address the water challenges facing the continent and to protect their fresh-water resources. Following the first phase, implemented in eight cities across the globe, a 2002 review of the programme acclaimed the approach and called for it to be strengthened and broadened both thematically and geographically. The programme is now active in 17 cities within 14 countries.

Global Water Operators' Partnerships Alliance
Using Water Operator Partnerships as a cost-effective approach to cooperation

Getting water and sanitation access to those who need it places heavy demands on public utilities. Publicly owned and managed water utilities currently provide more than 90 percent of the world's piped water, and even small managerial improvements could yield major benefits. Efficiency and financial viability are essential, but utilities also need to be service-oriented, transparent, accountable, and technically competent. The establishment of a global mechanism to facilitate and systematize Water Operator Partnerships at the global level was highlighted as a priority theme of the Hashimoto Action Plan by the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, which was launched in March 2004.

The Global Water Operators' Partnerships Alliance aims to scale up peer-topeer support among water operators and systematize the partnership efforts worldwide by doing the following: helping establish sustainable institutional and financial frameworks for regional, subregional, and national Water Operator Partnership platforms; promoting guiding principles and a code of conduct for the partnerships to help ensure the broad impact of partnership activities; enabling regional platforms to learn from one another about how they implement or facilitate Water Operator Partnerships; and supporting Water Operator Partnership networks and utilities with needed knowledge tools, capacity building, and financial support.

Since January 2009, the alliance has established and expanded its networks with partners at both regional and global levels to develop knowledge tools, deliver training, facilitate brokering, and identify financing. In 2009, the alliance provided significant support to establish or strengthen regional, subregional, and national platforms to facilitate Water Operator Partnerships in Africa, Arab countries, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and south-east Europe. These platforms were established and anchored within long-standing institutional structures, responding to demand from operators and strong support from regional development banks.

Urban transport
Urgently improving urban transport in the face of a rising global population

UN-HABITAT advocates for policies and models to achieve sustainable urban transportation systems across the globe in the context of an overall mission to promote the sustainable development of human settlements and the achievement of adequate shelter for all.

There are five thematic areas:
1. Promoting human settlement development strategies that better integrate land use planning and transport to minimize trip distances and reduce negative impacts
2. Promoting public transport and non-motorized transport as substitutes for, or complementary to, the private car, through expanded infrastructure and service supply
3. Increasing the efficiency of existing transport operations through improved planning and management of all modes of transport, traffic demand management, increased vehicle efficiency, and new fuel technologies
4. Improving mobility levels for the urban poor through the promotion of affordable urban transport plans, programmes, and appropriate technologies
5. Decentralizing urban transport infrastructure investment, decision making, planning, and management at the local level

Urban energy
Improving access to basic energy services

Two billion people worldwide have no access to basic energy services. For cooking and heating, they depend on inefficient biomass fuels such as wood and animal and crop waste, which have detrimental effects on air quality and health. About 75 percent of the world's commercial energy is consumed in urban areas. But in developing towns and cities, most of the urban poor have no access to modern energy services. Their energy needs have not been properly addressed, as development efforts have focused intensely on the electrification of rural areas. It is estimated that 40 percent of the total national electricity generated in developing countries is used in urban buildings, which consume more energy than the transport and industry sectors. In the Lake Victoria region, water utilities use up to 80 percent of their revenue to pay their electricity bills, yet the region has much renewable energy potential.

UN-HABITAT has prioritized three keys focus areas: energy access for the urban and peri-urban poor; energy efficiency measures; and renewable energy technologies. UN-HABITAT works with partners, including power utilities, to increase electricity access in slum areas through innovative solutions such as prepaid electricity systems and community-owned, decentralized power generation systems such as Clean Energy Centres. The agency also assists national and local governments in developing energy policies that focus on renewable energy technology, energy efficiency, and the energy needs of the poor. For example, UN-HABITAT assists governments in reviewing and updating their building laws and regulations, with a view to promoting low carbon-emitting building materials and energy-efficient designs and standards. It also promotes energy-efficient practices and appliances and conducts energy audits for water and sanitation utilities.

The agency identifies successful development models and promotes their replication. Best practices in urban energy projects are collected, assessed, and promoted, and the agency also carries out demonstration and pilot projects that give attention to capacity building, technology transfer, microfinance, and on-thejob training.

The programme is currently preparing Case Studies on Renewable Energy Technologies and Energy Efficiency, a booklet mainly for the urban areas of developing countries. A portfolio of USD 700,000 is focused on renewable energy projects. There are also projects on energy access and energy efficiency in buildings in the pipeline, with a total budget of USD 3 million.