The Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Initiative (LVWATSAN)has been acknowledged in a publication by a body that coordinates water issues in the United Nations wide system.

The Initiative's approach to capacity building has now been recognized as a "best practice" case study in capacity development for the water and sanitation sector, in a new book entitled"Water and the Green Economy – Capacity Development Aspects",published by the United Nations University on behalf of UN-Water.

UN-Water, established in 2003, coordinates and strengthens the work of 29 United Nations agencies and bodies on freshwater matters.

The book, which focuses on examples of best practices in capacity building, dedicates an entire chapter to an examination of the Initiative's approach to capacity development. The case study notes that the Initiative's model represents a number of important innovations,  including a partnership arrangement that  combined international expertise with local knowledge and experience, a  holistic,  on-the-ground identification of issues, the inclusion of multiple aspects and multiple stake-holders  and a delivery mechanism  which addressed the key issues while empowering stakeholders to prepare and implement action plans aimed at addressing the main capacity gaps.

The study concludes that, while the Initiative's approach to capacity development was designed to ensure sustainable service delivery for water supply, sanitation and solid waste management, the model can be applied more broadly to enhance the capacity of the water sector in promoting the Green Economy.

It is worth noting that in developing countries, investments in water and sanitation often fail to achieve sustainability because of inadequate institutional and human resources capacity to manage and operate infrastructure systems and ensure cost recovery.  

The Lake Victoria Region Water and Sanitation Initiative (LVWATSAN), now in its second phase, is an innovative programme, initiated by UN-Habitat, which integrates physical infrastructure improvements in water, sanitation and solid waste management, with comprehensive capacity development, targeting service providers, local authorities and community-based organizations.