Governing the full hydrological cycle to strengthen water resilience

Date: 25 May 2026
Time: 15:00–17:00
Location: Serena Hotel, Rudaki Street 14, Dushanbe, Tajikistan. And online.

If you wish to join us at Serena Hotel please contact us at siwi@siwi.org.

Seats are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Co-convened by SIWI and the Government of the Netherlands

About the event

The global hydrological cycle is becoming increasingly disrupted by climate change, land degradation, ecosystem loss, and unsustainable water management. At the same time, governance systems often continue to treat water, land, ecosystems, agriculture, and climate separately, despite being deeply interconnected.

This side event at the 4th High-Level International Conference on the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development, 2018–2028” will explore what it means in practice to govern water as a system across the full hydrological cycle.

The discussion will focus on the growing recognition that strengthening resilience to droughts, floods, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, and climate-related shocks requires governance approaches that integrate blue water, green water, cryospheric water, ecosystems, soils, and land use.

Particular attention will be given to green water — the moisture stored in soils, vegetation, and the atmosphere — which remains largely absent from many policy and governance frameworks despite playing a critical role in climate resilience, agriculture, ecosystems, and hydrological stability.

The event will bring together representatives from governments, international organizations, finance institutions, regional actors, and policy experts to share practical experiences, emerging approaches, and lessons learned from integrated water governance efforts across sectors and scales.

The session will also contribute to broader discussions leading towards the 2026 UN Water Conference and ongoing efforts to strengthen water governance within climate, development, and resilience agendas.

Objectives

The event aims to:

•  build a shared understanding of what governing water across land, ecosystems, and water institutions means in practice
• explore practical approaches to integrated hydrological cycle governance through country and basin-level experiences
• identify lessons learned, challenges, and enabling conditions for systems-level governance
• contribute actionable messages and next steps to inform global water governance discussions ahead of the 2026 UN Water Conference

Speakers and participants

Opening remarks:

• Meike van Ginneken, Water Envoy, Government of the Netherlands
• Sharifa Khudobakhsh, Deputy Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Republic of Tajikistan

Presentations:

• James Leten, SIWI
• Henk Ovink, Global Commission on the Economics of Water

Panel discussion participants include representatives from:

• Government of Japan
• European Union
• World Bank (tbc)
• Regional basin organizations

Registration

Participation in the side event is open to conference participants. Please e-mail: siwi@siwi.org

To join us online please register here.

For questions regarding the event, please reach out to siwi@siwi.org