Building momentum for water actions

The UN-Water meeting was held 5-6 December at UNESCO in Paris with the main agenda to prepare for the upcoming UN Water Conference in March 2023, which will be the first UN meeting solely about water since the UN Water Conference in Mar del Plata 1977.

Water and the 2030 Agenda Water governance

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Håkan Tropp, Programme Director Capacity Development — no caption

Håkan Tropp, PhD

Programme Director / Acting Chief Operating Officer,

Office of the Chief Operating Officer

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Andreas Karlsson

Director,

Communications

The meeting in Paris deliberated on several water topics and challenges that will be brought up in the UN Water Conference 2023 through so-called Inter-active Dialogue Working Groups of the UNWC2023. The expectations on the UNWC2023 to encourage transformative outcomes are high but will ultimately have to rely on voluntary commitments by governments and other stakeholders.

“SIWI’s focus is to support action-oriented outcomes of the UNWC2023 that can contribute to improved governance and related financing, innovation, and capacity development as a mean to address water resources and services challenges. It is very important that the UNWC2023 can deliver outcomes that take a step forward and build momentum for water actions to make an impact on all levels,” says Håkan Tropp, programme director at SIWI, who participated in the UN-Water meeting in Paris.

SIWI is currently developing its specific positions and contributions on changes we want to see happen at the UNWC2023 – changes that can significantly accelerate the implementation of global water related commitments, such as the SDG6 on Water for All, the Paris Climate Agreement, Water as a Human Right, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk reduction.

“It is very important that the UNWC2023 can deliver outcomes that take a step forward and build momentum for water actions to make an impact on all levels.”

Håkan Tropp, Programme director, SIWI

Tropp informed the UN-Water Meeting that SIWI offers the World Water Week (WWW) in Stockholm to be one of the first follow-up and stocktaking events after the UNWC2023. The WWW plays an important and forward-looking role to complement formal UN processes on follow ups to the UNWC2023.

“Making use of the World Water Week for follow-ups will be particularly relevant since the 2023 theme will be Seeds of Change: Innovative Solutions for a Water-Wise World. This will promote changed behaviors for more sustainable and inclusive water development and aligns well with the ambitions of the UNWC2023, to become an event where transformational change can start to happen,” Tropp says.

Following the meeting in Paris, SIWI is also pleased to announce that the next UN-Water meeting will be hosted by SIWI and be held back-to-back to the next World Water Week ( 20-24 August 2023) in Stockholm.