High-Level Panel

A panel of Ministers will discuss the outcomes of the Global Water Policy Report 2021 and its relevance to their work, topics for the 2023 report (to be announced at this event) and how to maximise participation and value in the next Water Leaders Survey. The session will also include a brief overview of the report findings and a presentation by a senior United Nations official on how the report will support implementation of the SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework.

The panel seeks to address the need to include adaptation to climate change in the formulation of public policies and strategies by governments and water and sewage operating companies.
The resilience of water supply systems play a fundamental role in the strategic planning of those responsible for the sanitation sector to permanently serve the various water users, especially the supply for inhabitants of urban and rural areas where the resources are no longer available in abundance

The Great Green Wall (GGW) project is one of the largest projects to combat desertification initiated and carried out by Africa, in particular by the Sahelo-Saharan States. This project aims to unite the Sahelian States around the issues of combating desertification and adapting to climate change in a logic of sustainable economic development.
The project aims by 2030 to :
- Restore 100 million hectares of degraded land
- Create 10 million green jobs
- Sequester 250 million tons of carbon

The session will be the climax of a broader initiative whose objectives are to strengthen the links between the water and nature communities to enable effective policies and practices, and to promote the use of Nature Based Solutions by water practitioners. It targets professional and user communities of water and nature which should strengthen their dialogue, design integrated projects and initiatives, and play their role in conservation, together with political and economic decision makers at global, national, local and basin levels.

This High Level Panel focused on financing water will contribute to the preparation of the UN 2023 Water Conference. It will highlight key guiding questions that can contribute to advancing the global discussion on water economics and financing that will be explored in a major forthcoming review to be prepared for the UN 2023 Water Conference.

Water, land and soil resources are the sources of life, without which there is no agriculture. With 98% of the food consumed produced on land/soil and the immediate and visible impact of drought on crop production, the good state of these crucial natural resources should be everyone's priority. In 2011, FAO published its first comprehensive report on the status of the world’s land and water resources for food and agriculture (SOLAW 2011). This new edition of SOLAW update the previous status of the resources, review the trends and explore the new emerging global processes.

The Session will focus on the political commitment to clearly include water in the COP27 negotiation and recognize its pivotal role and contribution to both adapt and mitigate to global climate change. A major goal of the Session is to bring water management scientific knowledge and advances closer to public policies formulation and decision-making.

This panel is an important milestone for ensuring better protection of water and water infrastructure, before, during and after armed conflicts. With the support of the Swiss Confederation, the Geneva Water Hub invites you to contribute to the discussion on the occasion of the 9th World Water Forum in Dakar.

Tajikistan and the Netherlands will co-host the UN 2023 Water Conference and they are committed to make it a watershed moment for the entire world. Aline with this commitment, they jointly with Senegal organize the high-level session on the UN 2023 Water Conference in the framework of the 9th World Water Forum to attract more attention and promote stakeholder’s engagement in the preparatory process and the Conference itself.

The session provides an opportunity to highlight the importance of using wastewater surveillance to monitor SARS-CoV-2 along with the virus variants circulating in the population.

Key objectives:
• The main goal is to maximize the potential of Wastewater-based Epidemiology (WBE) to ensure One Health approach by monitoring other pathogens, human exposure to environmental contaminants, biomarkers and antimicrobial resistance.