With the postponement of the 9th World Water Forum scheduled to take place in Dakar from March 21 to 26, 2022, the stakeholders involved in the preparatory process will have one more year to prepare for this long-awaited major event, which should help to ensure water security everywhere and for everyone. This postponement due to the progression of the Covid-19 pandemic throughout the world will make it possible to reinforce the efforts already made within the framework of the preparatory process so that the next edition of the Forum, placed under the theme of "Water Security for Peace and Development", will be a historic success.
The Forum will provide a unique platform for professionals and decision-makers to address the priority of accelerating and scaling up access to water and sanitation worldwide. The partners and the many actors from around the world who have mobilized in the preparatory process, particularly in the development of the thematic content, deserve congratulations and thanks for the quality of the work already done. This exceptional mobilization will be reinforced until the Forum by numerous preparatory events on all continents in order to place water at the center of political decisions.
It should be recalled that the Dakar Forum will introduce, compared to the previous ones, major innovations articulated around the following components:
- Firstly, an inclusive and decompartmentalized multi-stakeholder process with all stakeholders, who will participate in working groups structured around the four priorities: "Water and Sanitation Security", "Cooperation", "Water for Rural Development" and "Tools and Means";
- Secondly, around a Summit of Heads of State, Government and major international institutions, to launch a message and a historic political initiative, with a view to catalyzing actions, in particular, for the rapid achievement of universal access to water and sanitation;
- Thirdly, around the implementation of the Dakar 2021 Initiative which aims, during the preparatory phase, to select relevant, innovative, replicable projects, producing short-term results with sustainable impact around the priorities of the Forum.
The Forum will be prepared and organized in a particular context because the Covid-19 pandemic reinforces the urgency to mobilize the international community in all its diversity and at all levels, for an effective Forum (social, political, economic), an innovative Forum, a catalyst for action for continental and global commitments so that water security for peace and development is ensured everywhere and for all, today and tomorrow.
The Dakar World Water Forum will thus offer water and sanitation stakeholders, in Africa and around the world, a platform for exchanges, experience sharing and advocacy to place water and sanitation at the heart of priorities in all countries. It is an appointment not to be missed and all those who are not yet involved in the preparatory process are invited to join the ongoing efforts, notably by joining the advisory groups, to play a leading role in the preparatory process and the organization of the Forum, and thus contribute to its success.
