The Mortenson Center in Global Engineering and Resilience and UNU-INWEH propose to build the missing column in global water security: continuous environmental sensing connected to outcomes-based finance, joined to UN-Water positioning, member-state convening, and joint graduate training.
Global Engineering & Resilience · ~20 countries · 15-year cluster-RCT record
Institute for Water, Environment & Health · Hamilton, Canada
Reading across UNU-INWEH's five existing Hubs, the measurement-to-accountability stack for SDG 6 — continuous sensing wired directly to outcomes-based finance — is not yet anchored at any of them. That is precisely the line of work the Mortenson Center has been developing for fifteen years.
Layers 01–03 are UNU-INWEH strengths. Layer 04 — ground-truth microbial sensing connected to verified, finance-grade outcomes — is the open column, and the Mortenson Center's core.
"Continuous sensing connected to outcomes-based finance for SDG 6 is the column I have been developing for fifteen years. I have not seen another natural home for that line of work in the UN system." — from the Mortenson Center's note to UNU-INWEH
A 2025 IWA Water and Development Research Award recognized fifteen years of work on monitoring, accountability, and outcomes-based finance in global water security — the methodological foundation this partnership would bring into the UN system.
The partnership is differentiated by methodological focus, not geography — pairing field-grade measurement and finance with UN positioning and reach.
Drawing on UNU-INWEH's partnership model — a flagship product, joint education, specialized courses, executive education, and project collaboration — adapted to leverage the Mortenson Center's measurement and finance expertise.
Co-host the global microbial water-quality dataset as a UN-aligned open-data product — UNU-INWEH providing UN-Water positioning and member-state convening, the Mortenson Center providing infrastructure and curation. Year-one deliverable: a co-branded annual reference report drawing on the dataset and on operational evidence from seven African programs.
A joint program modeled on the UNU-CCNY structure: students complete their Mortenson / CU Boulder graduate degree while earning a UNU diploma — themed on Monitoring, Accountability & Outcomes-Based Finance for SDG 6 — through co-supervision, a UNU seminar series, a UN-system internship, and an SDG-aligned applied thesis. Minimal additional coursework atop the existing degree.
A specialized course for UNU-INWEH's Online Learning Centre on in-situ environmental sensing, microbial water-quality monitoring, and digital measurement-reporting-verification for outcomes-based finance — capacity-building content the UN system does not currently offer.
Focused executive-education workshops for ministries, utilities, and implementers on designing measurement-to-finance systems — turning the evidence base and operating models into a transferable practice for member states.
Near term: joint authorship on the operational evidence base for sensor-verified outcomes-based finance in safe drinking water, and co-development of new proposals (e.g. aligned to the Sustainability Transitions Accelerator). The longer arc: formalizing a UNU Hub on accountable water and outcomes-based finance for SDG 6 — differentiated from the existing five Hubs by methodological focus rather than geography, with the Mortenson Center as anchoring academic partner.
Like the UNU-CCNY joint programs, students complete their existing CU Boulder degree while earning a UNU diploma through a small set of joint additions. The Mortenson Center already runs the building blocks — a Graduate Certificate in Global Engineering (12 credits, taken concurrently with any CU graduate degree) and a field Practicum across 80+ partner programs — so the UNU layer adds global credentialing, not a parallel degree.
Draft structure for discussion · modeled on the UNU-CCNY joint MS & PhD programs · applies to both MS and PhD tracks · final configuration subject to CU Graduate School and UNU approval.
Stand up the global microbial water-quality dataset as a co-branded, UN-aligned open-data product. Low-friction, high-visibility, and immediately useful to UN-Water and member states.
Publish the inaugural co-branded State of Microbial Water Quality report; launch the specialized Online Learning Centre course; begin joint authorship on the sensor-verified outcomes-based-finance evidence base.
Formalize the joint graduate credential between the Mortenson Center / CU Boulder and UNU, modeled on the UNU-CCNY joint programs, with co-supervision and a UN-system internship pathway.
Formalize the partnership as a UNU Hub themed on accountable water and outcomes-based finance — the standing UN-system home for the measurement-to-accountability stack.
The Mortenson Center anchors seven large carbon-financed safe-water programs across sub-Saharan Africa today, implemented with field partners including the Millennium Water Alliance, LifeStraw, Helvetas, Asili, Water Mission, and Virridy.
500+ schools serving ~600,000 students today, scaling to ~1,500 schools / ~1.5M students by 2028.
~4,500 schools; over one million children with safe drinking water at school.
~120,000 people across five counties, with ML-based borehole-functionality forecasting.
~1,100 active solar borehole systems across all 18 provinces; targeting 350,000 people by 2030.
100,000+ verified beneficiaries; 84 community-owned "Water Mama" enterprises; 60 km piped network; targeting 350,000 by 2030.
With Helvetas; targeting 350,000 people across three regions by 2030.
With Water Mission; 31 villages serving ~200,000 residents.
Combined current footprint of well over two million beneficiaries, scaling toward five million.
From the Tubeho Neza programme — a cluster-randomized trial of carbon-credit-financed water filters and improved cookstoves across ~101,000 households in Western Province, Rwanda (The Lancet Planetary Health, with companion papers in Environmental Science & Technology, npj Clean Water, and Nature). Subsequent work integrated household water filters into Rwanda's national Community-Based Environmental Health Promotion Programme, with replicated effects at community-health-worker scale.
If this fits both institutes, we would start small and visible — and let the flagship product open the door to joint training, joint authorship, and a standing UNU Hub.
Agree to publish the global microbial water-quality dataset as a co-branded, UN-aligned open-data product.
Define the inaugural co-branded State of Microbial Water Quality reference report and its annual cadence.
Select the joint-program and course mechanisms that best leverage each institute, and sketch the Hub.