This document is an internal Kenya country impact study of initiatives supported THE UN-HABITAT Water and Sanitation Trust Fund (WSTF). The objective of the WSTF, established in 2003, was to bring in new investment and ideas, expand service coverage for poor urban dwellers and help build momentum for achieving the MDGs.The impact study reviewed the overall strategy of the WSTF, examined the Kenya country context and the UN-HABITAT country strategy, and undertook an impact study of specific projects. Information was gathered from project documents, interviews with key stakeholders including project beneficiaries, and field visits.

The Mekong Region Water and Sanitation (MEK-WATSAN) Initiative was formulated in response to the GMS initiative as a collaborative effort between UN-HABITAT, the Governments of the Greater Mekong Sub-region and ADB.

The objective of the MEK-WATSAN Initiative is to support the participating countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) attain their water and sanitation related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The purpose of this extensive review (Part I) is to provide the basis for defining a pro-poor water and sanitation governance framework and the tools required to improve UN-HABITAT efforts in favor of adequate water supply and sanitation services for the urban poor.

The Manual on the Right to Water and Sanitation is designed to assist policy makers and practitioners in implementing the right to water and sanitation. This publication, written in non-legal language, addresses the vital need to clarify how human rights can be practically realized in the water and sanitation sector.

The Manual recognizes that implementing the right to water and sanitation is not limited to legal recognition or allocation of funds. Rather, it provides the basis for practical reforms in many areas of water supply and sanitation and in water resource management that can help make the water and sanitation sector operate in a manner that is more pro-poor, accountable and inclusive.

The Strategic Plan’s purpose is to guide Trust Fund work in addressing challenges of the internationally agreed-to water and sanitation goals and UN-Habitat mandates, including the overall goals of shelter for all and sustainable human settlement development, as embodied in The Habitat Agenda and the recent Medium Term Strategic and Institutional Plan.

UN-HABITAT has been implementing the Water for African Cities Programme since 1999. The programme is a direct follow-up  to the Cape Town Declaration, adopted by African Ministers in December 1997, addressing the urgent need for improved water management in urban areas of the continent.

The world’s governments agreed at the Millennium Summit to halve the number of people who lack access to safe water, mainly in the world’s cities, by 2015. With rapidly growing urban populations the challenge is immense. Water and Sanitation in the World’s Cities is a comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the problems and how they can be addressed. This influential publication by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) sets out in detail the scale of inadequate provision of water and sanitation. It describes the impacts on health and economic performance, showing the potential gains of remedial action; it analyses the proximate and underlying causes of poor provision and identifies information gaps affecting resource allocation; it outlines the consequences of further deterioration; and it explains how resources and institutional capacities – public, private and community – can be used to deliver proper services through integrated water resource management.