“United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, 2021. A Look Back at the First 25 Years: 1996-2021. UNU-INWEH, Hamilton, Canada.
To help countries, primarily in the Global South, address water resource challenges is the fundamental mandate of UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), which is marking its 25th anniversary of service in 2021.
Hosted by McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, with long-term UN host-country and core-funding agreements with the Government of Canada, UNU-INWEH bridges the gap between research and the practical needs of political leaders and decision makers in low- and middle-income countries.
As a UNU research and training institute, one of 13 worldwide working on different development issues, UNU-INWEH draws on rich water management expertise in Canada and globally, and contributes to key UN system-wide processes, including UN-Water – a cross-agency network with international partners addressing global water and sanitation issues.
Over the years, UNU-INWEH has engaged scores of international experts, established hundreds of partnerships worldwide (many of them ongoing), trained hundreds of young water professionals, produced hundreds of research and policy publications, generated hundreds of articles featured on thousands of international news sites, and attracted tens of millions of funding dollars. With thanks to all collaborators and supporters, here are a few selected research highlights and other achievements during our first quarter century.