Progress on water-use efficiency 2018: global baseline for SDG indicator 6.4.1

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has presented the first assessment of global and regional trends on water-use efficiency, based on nationally and internationally available data sets for 168 countries. The report titled, ‘Progress on Water-use Efficiency 2018: Global Baseline for SDG Indicator 6.4.1,’ is one of a package of seven indicator reports launched at the 2018 World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden, as part of the UN-Water Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6. SDG target 6.4 aims to “substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity.” Reporting on the first of two indicators under this target, the FAO document describes the methodological approach used to test indicator 6.4.1 in five pilot countries: Jordan, the Netherlands, Peru, Senegal and Uganda. It presents global baseline data for the indicator for the 2015-2018 period.