Seeds of Change: Innovative Solutions for a Water-Wise World
World Water Week is the leading conference on global water issues, held every year since 1991. The Week attracts a diverse mix of participants from many professional backgrounds and every corner of the world.
Together, participants develop solutions to the planet’s greatest water-related challenges, such as poverty, the climate crisis, and biodiversity loss.
World Water Week 2023 is focused on innovation at a time of unprecedented challenges. This year’s theme – ‘Seeds of Change: Innovative Solutions for a Water-Wise World’ invites us to rethink how we manage water, and invites ideas, innovations, and governance systems that will be needed in a more unstable and water scarce world.
We invite you to join us at our events, in person or virtually. Please note that the sessions joined virtually are free of cost and require online registration.
Our Events
Sunday, 20th August 2023
Integrated landscape development approach in the Central Rift Valley Sub-basin
Time: 09:30-10:00 CEST
Summary: The session will present holistic and integrated landscape development approaches(ILDA) to enhance ecosystem services, people’s livelihoods, and climate change resilience in the sub-basin. The event will also present how landscape-based restoration is integrated with livelihood development options for ecosystem resilience. We will also indicate stakeholders’ coordination and integration. Finally, we will discuss the successes and challenges faced by implementing the ILDA in the sub-basin.
Conveners: Wetlands International
Bending the Curve for Freshwater Biodiversity: Needs and plans for Multi-sectoral Action
Time: 14:00-15:30 CEST
Onsite (A3) + online
Summary: The session will highlight GBF targets of greatest relevance for freshwaters; introduce tools, datasets, guidance, indicators, and other resources in development; and showcase innovations in large-scale planning and finance. It will also consider how GBF implementation can contribute to achieving SDGs (including those related to water security, biodiversity, fisheries, food security, health, and climate adaptation).
Conveners: Conservation International, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Synchronicity Earth, The Nature Conservancy, Wetlands International, World Wide Fund for Nature
Voices from the Field: Source-to-Sea Stories from Around the World
Time: 16:00 - 17:30 CET, Onsite (C4) and online
Summary: In this session, early adopters of the source-to-sea management approach will share their experiences from implementation the approach across a variety of contexts and issues. Through the presentation of case studies and discussion of key learnings from these settings, the session aims to provide new insights on how source-to-sea management can be initiated and developed. Building upon these insights, the session will explore key recommendations for advancing the understanding and uptake of source-to-sea management.
Conveners: Action Platform for Source to Sea Management, Deltares, French Water Partnership, Global Environment Facility, IW:LEARN, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, Stockholm International Water Institute, Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, UN Environment Programme, UNDP-SIWI, Water Governance Facility, United Nations Development Programme, Water Science Policy
Wednesday, 23rd August 2023
Upscaling landscape restoration to safeguard East African Wetlands
Time: 10:00-10:40 CEST, Live talk show: onsite + online
Summary: The session will engage in a live talk show to discuss possibilities of upscaling landscape restoration in order to safeguard East African wetlands. More specifically, the importance of wetlands in East Africa, the Integrated landscape approach for wetland conservation, challenges in scaling up catchment restoration work, and solutions for upscaling catchment restoration will be discussed during the session.
Conveners: Wetlands International
Thursday, 24th August 2023
Financing climate resilient WASH: Social inclusive cost recovery systems
Time: 11:00 – 12:30 CEST, Onsite (A3) + online
Summary: Climate change is impacting WASH services all over the world. In many cases, those who are hit the hardest have least financial capacity to adapt/absorb the shock. In this session, we will expand on successful and less successful cases of socially inclusive cost recovery systems for financing climate-resilient WASH.
Conveners: Amref Flying Doctors, Plan International, Simavi, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, WASH Alliance International, WASH SDG Consortium
Links
Why water security is about healthy wetlands
A world without wetlands is a world without freshwater
Why wetlands are so important for both nature and climate
Wetlands: an answer to the climate crisis
Resources
We need wetlands: The urgent case for global wetland targets
download
Wetlands and Methane: Key Messages
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Wetlands and Methane [Technical Report]
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Briefing on lithium mining in the Andes of South America : No to water mega-mining
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Wetlands for Resilience : A ten year global wetland ambition
downloadWe invite you to join us at our events, in person or virtually. Please note that the sessions joined virtually are free of cost and require online registration.