Coordinating the UN's work on water and sanitation

WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) launch 2015 Progress Update and MDG Assessment

Produced by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation, the report provides a comprehensive assessment of progress since 1990 and looks back on 25 years of water, sanitation and hygiene monitoring. The global target for drinking water was achieved in 2010 and 91 per cent of the global population now use an improved drinking water source.  However, the world has missed the sanitation target by almost 700 million people and 2.4 billion people still lack access to improved sanitation facilities.

Closing the gaps and achieving universal access for all is the challenge now facing the global community. Over the years, JMP has tracked and presented data to demonstrate important inequalities between various groups, including those between urban and rural residents, the gender burden of water collection, and the persistent exclusion of the poor from water and sanitation services. 

The 2015 report is the final update of the MDG era and provides a comprehensive assessment of progress towards the MDG target, based on country, regional and global estimates of access to drinking water and sanitation in 1990 and 2015. It shows how much the world has changed, highlighting key achievements and providing insights into challenges remaining.

The report charts major trends in access and service levels over the MDG period and goes on to consider how far improvements in water and sanitation have benefitted different socio-economic groups. It specifically focuses on inequalities between the richest and poorest segments of the population and presents interesting new ways to visualize progress in reducing inequalities, underlining the challenge of achieving universal access post-2015.

Read the report here.