These reports outline MDG7 reporting scope and information by each country. The 2nd edition summary, completed November 2004, includes consolidated information on MDG7 from 67 MDG Country reports, including targets and indicators as well as data sources. The 1st summary, completed in November 2003, reviewed 32 MDG 7 Country reports. The next update is planned for February 2005.

Water is a basic human need and a basic human right. In situations of scarcity, decisions about access to water and use of water involve actors at the intergovernmental, governmental, regional, community and household levels and often become highly politicized. The needs and perspectives of large and small scale farmers, of small and medium sized enterprises, of households, of fisherfolk and of others who earn their livelihood from water can differ significantly. At the same time, level of commitment of the different actors to conservation practices and to protection of water resources from contamination may also vary and the question of whose interests prevail and receive top priority can create considerable tension. The most vulnerable members of societies - the landless and the poor - often have no voice in decision-making about water and their needs may be given little priority. This paper reviews current practices in water utilization and management in developing countries, focusing specifically on the gendered nature of water decision-making.

This report gauges where ECA countries stand in terms of meeting the globally agreed Millennium Development Goal of achieving environmental sustainability. It includes a preliminary calculation for Kazakhstan, Moldova and Ukraine for meeting the target of halving, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

Natural Disasters and Sustainable Development: Understanding the Links between Development, Environment and Natural Disasters, Background Paper for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)

This background document is being prepared as an evolving document in a contribution to the process leading to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, September 2002). It is prepared by the Inter-agency Secretariat of the ISDR in collaboration with UNDP, UNEP, UNHCS, DESA and OCHA. It includes discussions on natural disaster's impact on development; climate change and disasters; migration, unplanned urbanization and increasing vulnerability of infrastructure; strategies for development policy to reduce vulnerability to natural disasters; and courses for specific action.

All countries, as agreed under Agenda 21, must introduce NSSD. This site contains information on a project developing policy guidance for development assistance agencies on the development and implementation of NSSD

This report by the editor of the World Disasters Report and the New Economics Foundation's Policy Director, Andrew Simms, argues that human development faces potentially the biggest u-turn in its history. After decades of painfully slow human advancement, global warming and bad development threaten a great reversal of human progress. A new model is needed, in which every policy decision must answer one key question: will this increase or decrease vulnerability in the face of an increasingly unstable world?