Nigeria Secures Place In UN-Water Capacity Programme

Nigeria has secured a place in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) Capacity Development Initiative (CDI) for Water, in a move aimed at strengthening the country’s water governance systems and accelerating progress toward Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 on clean water and sanitation.

The development was disclosed by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement (North-Central), Abiodun Essiet, who said Nigeria had now been formally admitted as a participating country under the auspices of UN-Water.

According to her, Nigeria joins countries such as Costa Rica, The Gambia, Cuba, Panama, Jordan and Madagascar already participating in the framework.

She said the initiative mobilises the expertise and resources of the entire UN system to provide demand-driven capacity development support to advance SDG 6, with particular focus on technology and the water-energy nexus.

Essiet explained that her office, in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (OSSAP-SDGs), recently convened a strategic internal planning meeting to advance Nigeria’s participation in the programme.

The meeting was attended by Dr Bala Yusuf Yunusa, Senior Technical Advisor, OSSAP-SDGs, and Thembekile Dube-Ncube.

She said the engagement built on outcomes from her participation at the 2025 International Mayors Forum in Toyota City, Japan, organised by UNDESA.

According to her, discussions at the forum highlighted persistent global gaps in urban water resilience, governance systems and the integration of technology in water management, challenges she said are equally evident in many rapidly expanding cities worldwide.

She noted that Nigeria is now working to align national priorities with global best practices through the UN platform to improve water service delivery and strengthen national capacity.

“Our focus remains clear: to address systemic bottlenecks in water service delivery, strengthen national capacities in water governance, strategic planning, and delivery of sustainable water solutions,” she said.

She added that the partnership would also promote cross-sectoral coordination and integrated approaches to water and energy management, which she described as critical to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.