[3] Water is vital for reducing the global burden of disease and improving the health, welfare and productivity of populations.

To meet the needs of the 2030 Agenda, UN-Water launched the Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6, building on and expanding the experience and lessons learned during the MDG period.

[7] All the custodian agencies of the SDG 6 global indicators[8] have come together under the initiative, which includes the work of WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP), the inter-agency initiative GEMI and UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS).

Depending on the official UN theme of the campaign, they are led by one or more UN-Water Members and Partners with a related mandate.

Partners[11] are international organizations, professional unions, associations or other civil-society groups that are actively involved in water and that have the capacity and willingness to contribute tangibly to the work of UN-Water.

1992: The Group is subsumed into the UN Administrative Coordination Committee's (ACC) Subcommittee on Water Resources, which functions for several years before being disbanded.

2003: UN-Water is established, endorsed by the successor to the ACC: the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination.

2012: The Key Water Indicator Portal is launched, backed by a federated database containing data from several UN agencies.