Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa water, Sanitation May-June2015 Vol. 10 No.3 | Page 39

Publications

WaterAid – Healthy Start: the first month of life
Bringing a new life into the
world should be a time of love
and hope for mother and baby,
wherever they happen to live.
But, around the world, one
in every 50 births leads to
heartbreak for parents, as
their precious newborn son or
daughter will die before they are
a month old.
In 2013, over 2.7 million babies
died in their first four weeks of
life. This is overwhelmingly a problem of the developing
world – with over 99% of neonatal deaths occurring in low
and middle income countries.
In the year the world replaces the Millennium
Development Goals with the Sustainable Development
Goals, it is time to ensure that the next generation of
children is given the best start in life – a healthy start.
First-ever guidance on respecting the human rights
to water and sanitation
In January 2015, the
Mandate released the beta
version of the Guidance
For Companies on
Respecting the Human
Rights to Water and
Sanitation. This new
offering – developed by the
Mandate and Shift – is the
first-ever comprehensive
guidance for companies
regarding how to meet their
responsibility to respect
the human rights to water and sanitation. Applicable
to a broad range of corporate water users, the guidance
provides companies with practical measures on how to
bring a human rights lens to their existing corporate water
stewardship practices. Its development was informed not
only by project partners with expertise in water resources
and human rights, but also by business representatives,
civil society organizations, and UN agencies.
Mainstreaming environment and climate for
poverty reduction and sustainable development:
A handbook to strengthen planning and budgeting
processes
Author : UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative
Date: 2015
38

Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • May - June 2015

Abstract
This handbook is designed as
guidance for policymakers and
practitioners to mainstream
pro-poor environment
and climate concerns into
planning, budgeting and
monitoring. Mainstreaming is
achieved by putting povertyenvironment issues at the heart
of government—in other words,
by taking these issues into mainstream economic decisionmaking processes, particularly the national and subnational
planning and budgeting processes led by ministries of
finance, planning, local government and supported by
ministries of environment. Over the last 10 years, the
Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI), a joint programme
of the United Nations Development Programme and
the United Nations Environment Programme, has
successfully supported the integration and implementation
of pro-poor, environmental sustainability objectives into
national, subnational and sectoral development policies,
plans and budgets to contribute to poverty alleviation
and an inclusive, green economy. The handbook provides
guidance and concrete examples from PEI experience in
Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Commonwealth of
Independent States, and Latin America and the Caribbean,
as well as from other initiatives
Report on the Achievements during the
International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’ 2005
-2015
To achieve internationally
agreed water-related goals
such as the Millennium
Development Goals
(MDGs), Agenda 21 and
the Johannesburg Plan of
Implementation, the United
Nations proclaimed the
period 2005-2015 as the
International Decade for
Action “Water for Life”
and tasked UN-Water, the
United Nations inter-agency
mechanism for freshwater and sanitation issues, with
coordinating activities for implementing the Decade.
This report documents the major added value initiatives
carried out during the Decade by the entities of UN-Water
and demonstrates that while much still remains to be done
great strides have been made in the Decade as regards its
goals.