A/71/302 51. The process of incorporating the human rights to water and sanitation in development cooperation has not been a straightforward, consensual or expeditious process. International events have provided opportunities for governmental bodies to make various human rights-related commitments. One clear example of this is the Accra Agenda for Action of 2008, agreed to by developed and developing countries, in which it was indicated that developing countries and donors would ensure that their respective development policies and programmes were designed and implemented in ways consistent with their agreed international commitments on gender equality, human rights, disability and environmental sustainability. 45 More recently, the Ministerial Declaration of the Sixth World Water Forum (2012), adopted by representatives of 145 countries, demonstrated a true international consensus on the right to water and sanitation and the commitment by Governments to accelerating access to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation in line with United Nations resolutions. 46 In the Ministerial Declaration of the Seventh World Water Forum (2015), signatories indicated their engagement to translate commitments into national policies, plans and actions and to intensify joint efforts to advance water-related cooperation on a global scale, as well as their commitments to the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation and to ensuring progressive access to water and sanitation for all. 47 52. While those international commitments were being negotiated and settled during the 1990s and 2000s, various funders were simultaneously establishing their own policies. Regarding the policies of several multilateral agencies, a popular focus since then has been the so-called “pro-poor” or social safety nets approaches, which aim to target the poorest groups. Those orientations have been the subject of both intense theoretical debates that focus on the various social effects of targeted or universal interventions and empirical research assessing the outcomes of various programmes. An observed trend is that “pro-poor” approaches have not been effective in certain sectors, owing to their inability to meet the needs of the poor; 48 this has been particularly the case in the water and sanitation sector. 49 53. Another evolution of those policies was related to the integration of development cooperation into the Millennium Development Goals, which created the expectation that international transfers would play an important role in helping developing countries to meet the targets. It is important to note that the targets of the Millennium Development Goals for water and sanitation were not as ambitious as those in the Sustainable Development Goals, as the former sought only to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe d rinking water and __________________ 45 46 47 48 49 16-13590 See OECD, “The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action ”, available from: www.oecd.org/dac/effectiveness/34428351.pdf. See Post-forum highlights of the Sixth World Water Forum: Time for Solutions, Marseille, France, 12-17 March 2012, p. 12, available from www.worldwaterforum6.org/fileadmin/ user_upload/pdf/publications_elem/Highlights_web_BD_en.pdf. See World Water Forum, Ministerial Declaration, 13 April 2015, available from www.worldwatercouncil.org/fileadmin/world_water_council/documents/press_releases/ Ministerial_Declaration_7th_World_Water_Forum_1304_Final.pdf. See David Coady, Margaret Grosh and John Hoddinott, “Targeting outcomes redux”, World Bank Research Observer, vol. 19, No. 1 (2004). See Guy Norman and Steve Pedley, “Exploring the negative space: evaluating reasons for the failure of pro-poor targeting in urban sanitation projects”, Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, vol. 1, No. 2 (June 2011). 17/24