VITO @ UN Water Conference, New York, March 2023

A United Nations Conference on water was needed more than ever!

The realization of a United Nations conference on #water (46 years after the last major UN Water Conference) shows the clear need for the entire world to unite for water action. As of one week after the conference, we must keep the #momentum and make sure the debates, interactive dialogues and commitments are not forgotten!

Full house at 'Flanders House' and 'Permanent Mission of Belgium' in New York

VITO WaterClimateHub had the opportunity to organize and host two side-events in collaboration with:?VITO,?Vlakwa,?Vlaamse overheid,?Ministry of Foreign Affairs Belgium,?Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT),?Antea Group Belgium,?Antea Group International,?Water Europe,?Water Reuse Europe,?G-STIC: Global Sustainable Technology & Innovation Community,?Enabel,?Water4All - Partnership,?De Watergroep. We believe the sessions created some very inspiring synergies among all the participants present. We managed to fill up the room with brilliant minds that think likewise, and believe that #action is the #wayforward. We would like to thank everyone that was present and all the organizations involved: Young Water Solutions, Enabel, De Vlaamse Waterweg nv, Join For Water, ANR, the French National Research Agency, BOSAQ, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, AVEDEC asbl, UNESCO, Water, Environment and Business for Development (WE&B), Delft University of Technology, Salesforce,?Vlaamse Milieumaatschappij, iFLUX. We would also like to acknowledge the commitments from the Flemish and the Federal Government, as well as thank Minister?Zuhal Demir,? Minister?Lydia Peeters and Ambassador?Luc JACOBS for personally joining us in New York, strengthening our Belgian delegation.

Day 1 - More than a conference about water

The opening of the #UN2023WaterConference set the scene for the following days with no shadow of a doubt. The conference was co-hosted by the Netherlands and Tajikistan: "Water is our common denominator" highlights the sense of magnitude and urgency towards water action as a collective effort.

“This is more than a conference on water. It is a conference on today’s world seen from the perspective of its most important resource." - United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres .

The solutions to put forward must be #transformative, take water action?from reactive to #proactive, and adopt a #science-based #pragmatic approach to #LeaveNoOneBehind. Several parties introduced national plans, policies, priorities, and shared proposals to advance global ambition and propel water action: "Our chance is here and now. We simply cannot afford to wait."

The two interactive dialogues of the day highlighted the following key messages.

Water for Health

• #partnerships, including with the private sector;
• #genderequality, including leadership roles for women and girls, as well as menstrual health;
• #vulnerable groups, including migrants, people with disabilities and refugees;
• water, #sanitation and #hygiene #investment shortfalls and needs;
• clear public #policy for #rural and #urban climate challenges.

Water for Sustainable Development:

• pivot the role of water in #food systems;
• strive for higher ambition for #globalcooperation with education and research institutions;
• transforming to a low-carbon society can exacerbate #competition for #naturalresources;
• effects of the #UkraineWar on resources available in other regions, as well as damage to water-relevant infrastructure;
• positive impact of stronger, greener and healthier global development for people’s #wellbeing and the #future of the world.

Day 2 - Growing momentum over water action

The significance of the conference continued to be apparent and the momentum for water action kept growing. Delegates urged for #infrastructure #investments and the need to shift to a #circular water management. A?#holistic approach calls for an interlinked framework of climate change, biodiversity and disaster risk reduction, with water at its center. #Education was also mentioned as a powerful tool for #raisingawareness through art, design and science.

The two interactive dialogues of the day highlighted the following key messages.

Water for Climate, Resilience and Environment

• foster technology transfer, #financing, climate-smart agriculture, #renewableenergy sources, and #NatureBasedSolutions;
• building #capacity and #funding for #earlywarning systems for Least Developed Countries and SIDS;
• call on #governments to ensure that large industries comply with regulations and legislation;
• #policy interlinkages between water management, land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change require greater coordination at the level of the Water-Energy-Food #nexus.

Water for Cooperation

• urge Member States to join the Water Convention as a sound and flexible #legalframework to support #policy integration and #capacitybuilding opportunities to mobilize #financial resources;
• prevention of water-related conflicts to strengthen #peace and #security;
• drivers for cooperation include engaging #civilsociety and supporting individual commitments for transformation, especially by #youth;
• transboundary cooperation changes with place and time, due to political will, mutual benefit sharing, stability, and trust.

Day 3 - Water to accelerate the SDGs

The international community convened a historic meeting in New York with advancing efforts to accelerate the achievement of the #2030Agenda and water at the center of the global political agenda.

"The commitments at this Conference will propel humanity towards the water-secure future every person on the planet need." - United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres .

Transformative action for leaving nobody behind commends that the water cycle is a common good, emphasizing the importance of meaningful #stakeholderengagement for #watergovernance: "Civil society and the private sector are at the heart of this transformation."

"Water is and shall remain everyone’s business" notes the importance of cooperation across sectors, stakeholders, and borders.

By the end of the 3-day conference, significant progress had been made the sentiment was one of a breakthrough response to the global water crisis, with the agreement to establish a UN Special Envoy for Water, renewed political momentum, and about 700 voluntary #commitments to #WaterAction from many Member States and stakeholders (including the one from VITO !).