This content was originally published on The Resilience Shift website. The Resilience Shift, a 5-year programme supported by Lloyd’s Register Foundation and hosted by Arup, transitioned at the end of 2021 to become Resilience Rising. You can read more about The Resilience Shift’s journey and the transition to Resilience Rising here.
At World Water Week, the Resilience Shift is supporting a global focus on how to build a resilient future through water, through a number of high level dialogue sessions. Sessions are hosted by the Resilience Shift in partnership with SIWI and the Rockefeller Foundation.
In 2018, global agendas will focus on water and ecosystems at large. The UN-HLPF will address progress for SDG6 (water, sanitation) and other goals (energy, cities, sustainable consumption and production, ecosystems). The HLPF will present its concluding report and CBD COP14, Ramsar COP13 and UNFCCC COP24 will cover key water issues. UN members eagerly seek the engagement of non-state actors’ multi-stakeholder groups to support the implementation of these global agendas.
World Water Week has become an agenda setter for annual stocktaking on water-related development goals. It is a pivotal moment when synergies between the global agendas can be identified and acted upon to foster coherent and efficient implementation by convening high-level government representatives, UN and multilateral institutions, civil society, academia, and the private sector.
For three years, SIWI has organized a two-part high-level session to exchange knowledge, enhance partnership and action and take stock on water-related progress of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement. This year’s edition is co-sponsored by The Rockefeller Foundation and The Resilience Shift. It will highlight advances in water, science, practice, policy with a view on water resilience as a paradigm for fulfilling our common agenda for sustainable development.
Session 1: SDG-Paris Agreement: Building a resilient future through water (part 1)
Programme
09:00 Welcome - Mr. Torgny Holmgren, Executive Director, Stockholm International Water Institute
09:10 Key note message from COP presidency - H.E Tomasz Chruszczow, Special Envoy for Climate Change, The Ministry of Environment, Poland – tbc
09:20 Key note message - Ms. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO
09:30 Key note message - H.E Henk WJ Ovink, Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, Kingdom of The Netherlands, and Sherpa to the High-Level Panel on Water
9:40 Feedbacks from Global Agendas - Panel discussion moderated by Ms. Maggie White, Senior Manager, International Policy, SIWI
- Pamela Tshwete, Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, South Africa
- Martha Rojas-Urrego, Secretary General of the Ramsar Wetlands Convention
- Luqmon Isomatov, Head of Department, Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Republic of Tajikistan
- Andrea Erickson, Managing Director, Global Water Team, The Nature Conservancy
- Cate Lamb, Director of Water Security, CDP
10:25 Concluding statement
10:30 End of Part 1
Session 2: SDG-Paris Agreement: Building a resilient future through water (part 2)
Programme
11.00 Introduction - Mr. Torgny Holmgren, Executive Director, SIWI welcomes and presents Dr. Fred Boltz, CEO, Resolute Development Solutions and Ambassador, The Resilience Shift
11:10 Once upon a time tomorrow: from Architecture to Photography, a different lens on our society and ecosystem symbiosis - M. Chris Morin-Eitner, Photographer
11:20 Key note speaker - From the Global Agenda to Cities’ action - Ms. Lauren Sorkin, Asia Pacific Regional Director, 100 Resilient Cities
11:30 Supporting the implementation of the Global agendas at a city level – Panel Discussion and Q&A - Moderated by Dr. Mark Fletcher, Global Water Director, ARUP
- Mayor Katarina Luhr,Vice Mayor of Stockholm City
- Jean-Didier Berthault, Vice President of Greater Paris sanitation Authority (SIAAP) and Greater Paris Metropolitan Councillor
- Dr Gisela Kaiser, Executive Director of Water and Sanitation, City of Cape Town, South Africa
- Eduardo Vazquez Herrera, Executive Director, Agua Capital, Mexico CitySC
- Jennifer Sara, Director, Global water Practice, World Bank Group
- Alexa Bruce, Project Manager, City Water Resilience Framework, Arup
12:25 Conclusion - Mr. Torgny Holmgren, Executive Director, Stockholm International Water Institute
12:30 Close of the Session
Session 3: Follow up on High Level Panel: Building a resilient future through water
Water is key to the success of all the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, and therefore essential for delivering on the 2030 Agenda that aims to transform our world into the future we want. It is also a key enabling factor for delivering on the other global agendas (Paris Climate Agreement, Sendai Disaster Risk Reduction, New Urban Agenda).
To achieve this, a new way of managing water is needed, to make societies more resilient, sustainable and inclusive. Multi-stakeholder representatives of the water and development community presented an open letter to UN member state representations, UN agencies and other leading global organizations in the run up to the High Level Political Forum.
This initiative, lead and coordinated by SIWI and key partners, aims to build a strong momentum back to back with the HLPF and World Water Week, leading towards a final document for the UN General Assembly that calls for action and illustrates means of how it can be achieved.
This SIWI Sofa will present the key initiatives announced during the High Level Dialogue session on “Building a Resilient Future Through Water’ that will contribute to this momentum.
Open letter and Policy brief on ‘Building a resilient future through water’
Water is key to the success of all the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, and therefore essential for delivering on the 2030 Agenda that aims to transform our world into the future we want. To achieve this, a new way of managing water is needed, to make societies more resilient, sustainable and inclusive. This open letter calls for action and takes a closer look at how this can be achieved.
