ESCWA is convening a session on “Informing the SDGs through the Arab MDG+ Initiative” as part of the MENA Focus days organized within the World Water Week by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) and taking place from 28 August to 2 September 2016 in Stockholm. The event is planned for Wednesday August 31st in collaboration with Arab Countries Water Utilities Association (ACWUA), League of Arab States (LAS) and with the support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

The MENA Focus days event is dedicated to water and sustainable growth in the Middle East and North Africa aiming to enhance experience and knowledge sharing as well as to promote MENA priority issues in the global water agenda. 

ESCWA has been involved in the implementation of the MDG+ Initiative since its launch in 2010 by the Arab Water Ministerial Council (AWMC) in response to concerns raised as to the effectiveness of the MDG indicators in effectively reflecting the access to water supply and sanitation. The MDG+ proposes an encompassing set of indicators covering water consumption, water quality, service intermittency, affordability, wastewater treatment and reuse to better reflect the accessibility of water supply and sanitation in the Arab region context. In addition to that, the project provides a regional mechanism for monitoring and reporting the identified water supply and sanitation indicators.

At the global level, and based on a highly consultative process engaging governments, experts and civil society, the eight millennium development goals (MDGs) were replaced by SDGs and recognize the importance of considering water availability and sustainability, which is a marked improvement on the MDGs. In addition, there are many commonalities between the MDG+ indicators and those put forth by the SDGs. Therefore, the experience accumulated in data collection and reporting on water related indicators within the MDG+ initiative can serve as a basis to inform Arab preparation and follow-up on the water related SDGs.

In this context, the session on “Informing the SDGs through the Arab MDG+ Initiative” organized within the MENA focus days will elaborate on lessons learned from implementing the inter-governmental MDG+ Initiative with the aim of fostering discussion on water-related indicators and institutional mechanisms for monitoring and reporting on the water-related SDGs at the national, regional and global levels.