UNU-INWEH was created in 1996 in response to an emerging concern about the growing global water crisis and its harmful impact on human and environmental health and sustainable development.

[3] UNU-INWEH represents the UNU at UN-Water — an inter-agency coordination mechanism of the United Nations for freshwater and sanitation-related issues.

[4] The institute leads UN-Water efforts to support the UN-wide International Decade for Action on “Water for Sustainable Development” (2018–2028).

Internships typically range from 3–6 months and have a focus on producing either a research paper, tool or dataset that contributes to the organization's broader role and mission.

The course is structured on UN-Water's framework for global water issues and runs across 25 total hours of instructional time.