Venue: The Nature Hub
Organizers:
- Government of the Republic of South Africa, Department of Water and Sanitation – Lead
- International Water Management Institute
- Water Research Commission
- African Ministers Council on Water and Sanitation
- World Youth Parliament for Water
- Alliance for Water Stewardship
- Hisaar Foundation
- Indian Council of Agricultural Research
- World Farmers’ Organisation
- CGIAR
This side event will launch high-ambition missions for innovative and inclusive, science-based action on future water security developed by the Transformative Futures for Water Security (TFWS) initiative. The TFWS initiative has been championed by South Africa and facilitated and led by IWMI working with a network of 60 co-convening organizations based in the Global South.
Uniquely in the lead up to the UN 2023 Water Conference, TFWS has used a youth co-guardianship model to convene more than 250 organizations across eight Global South regions to identify priorities for more urgent and coherent policies and action on water security that are better supported by stakeholders across the water system.
TFWS held online regional dialogues in Central Asia, MENA, West and Central Africa, Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Latin America. The TFWS Final Conference brought together 200 participants, from diverse regions and stakeholder groups, in Cape Town, South Africa, to work jointly through a facilitated process to use results from the regional dialogues to conclude the design of 6 high-ambition missions to transform the future of water security, and form mission-driven alliances across policy, business, development, science and knowledge, and grassroots communities.
In a rapidly changing world for which the past is no longer a reliable guide to future water risks, TFWS missions will deliver science-based solutions for water insecurity driven by climate change, mounting water demand for food production, energy generation and economic development, deteriorating water quality, and degrading wetlands and ecosystem services targeting the priorities of youth and communities in countries that are most vulnerable to water insecurity.
The event will be structured around 1. a high-level panel on raising global ambition for water security; 2. launch of the TFWS missions; and 3. diverse speakers from organizations representing the various stakeholder groups involved in TFWS. The event will present commitments to action based on aligning of political leadership, finance institutions, research organizations and multistakeholder coalitions to catalyze implementation of the TFWS missions in support of the Water Action Agenda and the implementation of SDG6.