Water

Having access to safe drinking water and sanitation is central to living a life in dignity and upholding human rights. Yet billions of people still do not enjoy these fundamental rights.

Les zones humides jouent un rôle important dans la sécurité de l’eau, la résilience des communautés, la réduction des risques climatiques et la sécurité humaine. Les gouvernements Africains s’engagent pour leur sauvegarde à travers des plans et politiques nationaux et internationaux comme la Grande Muraille Verte et la Convention des Nations Unies sur la Lutte Contre la Désertification.

The session intends to feature the effects of agroecology in irrigation schemes seeking to redesign food systems while preserving on the diversity of ecosystems. It will also present specific responses to water scarcity in the context of marginal lands and climate change. Favoring sustainability of natural resources and governance, protection of smallholder farmers and food security and line with the "One Water, One Health approach", agroecology optimizes mutually beneficial interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment.

The session will be an opportunity to analyze and discuss in depth the constraints related to the large financing gaps to support the 2030 roadmap. A review of the weaknesses related to the classic 3T model will also be posed to highlight the weak points that require conceptual and practical adjustments. Most exciting, however, will be the presentation of concrete initiatives for innovation in water and sanitation and IWRM financing, including those based on testing and scaling up solutions involving private sector actors and other non-traditional sources of finance.

The session aims to present water as a key element without which none of the
problems associated with global changes will be resolved: combating desertification, resilience to change climate and epidemic prevention. The session also aims to discuss how it is possible to revive, in some form or another, the Climate is water initiative, so as to produce, by the community, and in the shortest possible time, (from preferably in view of COP 27) a series of synthetic but unified messages, to be transmitted to external partners, and to broadcast during major international events.

The 4th Mediterranean Water Forum, held in Malta in December 2021, was a platform for exchanging and consolidating know-how and experiences in the field of water in the Mediterranean. It identified effective responses to ensure water security. This theme is of crucial importance for the Mediterranean where demographic changes, socio-economic challenges and the effects of climate change are constantly threatening water security. The Mediterranean process will attempt.

The African Ministers responsible for water critically examining the global water situation and its implication for Africa in 2002 adopted the "Abuja Ministerial Declaration on Water – a key to Sustainable Development in Africa". This declaration established the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW). AMCOW is an intergovernmental institution of the African Union. The vision of AMCOW is an Africa where there is an equitable and sustainable use and management of water resources for poverty alleviation, socio-economic development, regional co-operation and the environment.

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.

The main objective of the session is to promote the Water-Energy-Food-Environment Nexus approach for a sustainable response to development needs.
Specifically, it will aim to
- Promote a better understanding of the water-energy-food-environment nexus concept for the development of synergies;
- To map the relationships and mutual impacts between these different sectors;
- To bring out good practices and innovative solutions to make the Nexus approach operational;
- Define methods of cooperation to maximize the benefits of the nexus.