• 8th Meeting
  May 30-June 1, 2007
  Shanghai, China
  
• 7th Meeting
  December 13-15, 2006
  Tunis, Tunisia
  
• 6th Meeting
  July 10-11, 2006
  Paris, France
  
• 5th Meeting
  March 14-15, 2006
  and 4th World Water Forum
  March 16-22, 2006
  Mexico City, Mexico
  
• 4th Meeting
  February 20-21, 2006
  Berlin, Germany
  
• 3rd Meeting
  November 3-4, 2005
  Rome, Italy
  
• 2nd Meeting
  December 9-10, 2004
  Tokyo, Japan
  
• 1st Meeting
  July 22-23, 2004
  New York, USA
  

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The Sixth Session of UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation was held on July 10th, 2006 at the International Conference Centre of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France and on July 11th at OECD in Paris, France.

1.Opening

Ms. Uschi Eid, the Vice Chair of the Board, expressed her condolence on passing of Mr. Ryutaro Hashimoto, the Chair of the Board. She recalled his outstanding leadership in guiding the Board to produce the COA and his active participation at the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico in March 2006, in addition to the recent successful meeting with Mr. Koffi Anan, UN Secretary-General, in Tokyo in May to deliver the message on behalf of the Board members. The Board shared their condolence in silence.

Ms. JoAnne DiSano, Director of Division for Sustainable Development of UNDESA, honored the Mr. Hashimoto for his strong commitment and deep dedication in leading the Board. She congratulated the Board on the success in announcing the COA at the 4th World Water Forum, which contained a strong political message towards the international community, governments and stakeholders to leverage their actions and support for water and sanitation. She also expressed her profound appreciation to the government of France for hosting the Sixth Meeting.

Representing the host government, Mr. Yves Des Rieux, Counselor to the Minister for Cooperation, Development and French-Speaking Communities, welcomed the Board in Paris. He emphasized the importance of achieving the MDGs in due time and affirmed the full support to the COA.

The Board agreed that the Vice Chair Ms. Uschi Eid to become Acting Chair and adopted the proposal of renaming the COA to "Hashimoto Action Plan" in memory of the late Chair.

Mr. Hideo Fukushima of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan expressed GOJ's continuous support to the Board. He wished that the Board carries over the leadership and spirit of Mr. Hashimoto. He offered GOJ's continued assistance in implementing the Hashimoto Action Plan.

2.Overall Review of Progress and Next Steps

The Secretariat reported the Board on the following activities carried out during and after the 4th World Water Forum:

1. Activities at WWF4
2. Meeting between the UN Secretary-General and the Chair (Handover of COA) in May 2006 in Tokyo
3. Edition and translation of COA (available in English, Japanese, French, Germany and Chinese)
4. Opening of French website

1. Produce a Joint Statement with OECD
2. Approach and send letters to key institutions
3. Work on priority key institutions to obtain their higher commitment, such as in form of Joint Statement/Work Plan/paper of mutual understanding
4. Promote WOPs at global and regional level with Asia considered as pilot case. UNDESA seminar in Bangkok in July 2006 will be useful step to that end.
5. Work on Governments and Coordinate towards realization of the International Year of Sanitation in 2008
6. Proceed with necessary arrangement on UN Water MDG Prize taking into consideration possible sponsorship by a foundation in Singapore.

• World Bank
• International Finance Corporation
• International Monetary Fund
• International Fund for Agricultural Development
• OECD

• African Development Bank
• African Water Ministers' Council
• New Partnership for Africa's Development
• African Union Commission

• Caribbean Development Bank
• Inter-America Development Bank Group
• Central American Bank for Economic Integration
• Andean Development Bank

• Asia Development Bank
• Association of Development Financing Institution in Asia and Pacific

• Islamic Development Bank

• European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
• European Investment Bank
• European Commission
• Inter Parliamentary Union

• UNDP
• UNEP
• UNICEF
• UN-Habitat

The Board agreed with the list of the Members who are responsible for the priority key institutions with one member as the coordinator for each of the institutions. The responsible members will help Secretariat to draft letters to the institutions by suggesting clear and concrete items for the proposed actions of the institutions based on the COA. The responsible members will also contact the institutions and work on them to make higher level of commitment on the proposed action items. The modality of the higher commitment, such as joint statement, a letter of commitment by the institutions, and MOU, will be decided through dialogue between the responsible members and the institutions.

Each of the Board members will decide one priority key institution which he/she will start contacting and start helping with drafting letters. The members will inform the names of institutions they will have selected to Secretariat as soon as possible, possibly by July 21.

Responsible Board members will also help Secretariat to draft letters addressed to the other 25 key institutions.

The Board agreed to work on UN member state governments to submit proposal of the International Year of Sanitation in 2008 before the General Assembly. The government of Japan supported the initiative and agreed to review the proposal prepared by the Board Secretariat. The Board members will work on governments (basically of their home countries) and institutions list of which was submitted by the Secretariat.

The Secretariat reported on offer of sponsorship by the Lien Foundation in Singapore to support the UN Water Prize. A fund management body needs to be identified outside the UN system. The first prize is to be awarded in March 2008. The Board agreed that local governments should be a principal target recipient in accordance with the contents of COA. NGOs which cooperate with local governments can be subject to the prize.

Mr. Kenji Suzuki of Japan Water Forum reported progress of follow-up actions on COA resolutions relating to water disasters. The Board welcomed the report and confirmed to work on a Joint Work Plan with parties including Japan and UNISDR. The Board suggested to him that global initiative should be considered in addition to the proposed action within framework of the Asia-Pacific Water Forum. It also suggested that link with CSD-16 be considered in longer time frame to achieve the final objective, i.e. international agreement on water and disaster target.

3.Discussion with UNESCO

In the discussion session with UNESCO, Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO, affirmed that the water issue is placed high in the UNESCO's agenda and introduced the scope of work within the IHE program as the means of training water professionals in vulnerability assessment, systematic data collection and analysis for monitoring and an improved reporting mechanism.

The Board identified a cooperation ground in prevention and mitigation of water disasters by promoting the early warning system. Mr. Matsuura emphasized that governments need to recognize the importance and cost effectiveness of the early warning system. In order to prioritize the issue in political agenda and to reflect it on allocations of ODA, a strong political message needs to be sent out to governments and donors. ICHARM, a newly established UNESCO center in Tsukuba, Japan, was identified as a possible supporting institution to work on the issue in cooperation with the Board. Mr. Matsuura agreed that ILO should play a role in water and sanitation, e.g., possibly by becoming a member of UN-Water.

4.Dialogue with Africa

In the dialogue session with the representatives from Africa, Ms. Maria Mutagamba, Uganda's Minister of State for Water and President of AMCOW, stated that a number of initiatives exists in the African region with some results observed in improved sanitation. She urged water security in the region and the need to install appropriate infrastructure. She also stressed the importance of improving monitoring capacity and establishing a peer-review mechanism at regional level.

Mr. Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua, the Minister for Energy and Water of the Republic of Congo, stated that existing initiatives need to be consolidated for more efficient management and coordination by establishing a technical task force within AU.

Mr. Kordje Bedoumura, Director of Water and Sanitation Department and African Water Facility, African Development Bank, argued that water initiatives and supports need to be centralized and presented the review of the COA recommendations.

The Board agreed on writing a letter to the Presidency of AU. The African representatives agreed that full-scale dialogue can be held in Tunis in December, 2006 possibly hosted by AfDB.

5.Dialogue with OECD

At the Opening Remarks of the Dialogue Seminar attended by the Board members, the OECD secretariat and the member states, Mr. Angel Gurria, the Secretary-General of OECD and the Board member, welcomed the opportunity for dialogue exchange and stated that water MDGs can be accomplished duly given that financial challenges are overcome with increase of investments by US$ 30 billion a year. Other critical issues to be worked on include: cost recovery, tariff system, stimulating political will and awareness, technical development and capacity building.

Mr. Kiyotaka Akasaka, the Deputy Secretary-General of OECD, provided the overview of works carried out by OECD and introduced the Directorates which collaborate in a cross-cutting "horizontal project" to work on the multifaceted water issue in 2007 and 2008.

Kenzo Hiroki, Secretariat of the Board, presented the COA recommendations related to OECD. Board members made suggestions and comments relating to the COA to deepen understanding of OECD members and Secretariat. With regard to the Joint Statement between OECD and the Board, it was agreed to integrate the discussion outcome to the draft Joint Statement prepared by the Board. The parties agreed to publicize a final version on the website in addition to disseminating among the Council and the member states. The statement will also released to media of more than 2,000.

The Board agreed that the Acting Chair writes a letter to UN Secretary-General to ask for integration of a new Board member to represent the African region.

6.The Next meetings

Board agreed to hold the 7th Meeting in December, 2006 in Tunis hosted by the African Development Bank and the 8th Meeting in May, 2007 in Shanghai hosted by the Government of China. The 9th meeting could be held in a country of Americas in autumn 2007.

Discussion at the 6th session	Dialogue with OECD at the 6th session