Conference Agenda

The Radboud Conference will feature a science-policy dialogue, organised by IDOS (German Institute of Development and Sustainability), that revolves around the outcomes of the UN Water Conference, prospective narrative water as a “bridge builder” at the nexus of SDGs and climate policy.

In March 2023, the first global UN Conference on Water took place since 1977. It served as a mid-term review of the UN Water Action Decade (2018-2028), which aims at sustainable development and integrated management of water resources as a “dealmaker” for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. The UN Water Conference included a Water Action Agenda with numerous commitments from a variety of stakeholders. The conference took place at a point in time where water governance at global level was highly fragmented, lacked coherence and coordination, featured diverse fora and initiatives with varying ownership and lacking governmental legitimacy, and was characterised by a hotly debated role of the private sector, inadequate inclusion of civil society and a weak science-policy interface. The water crisis mostly manifests itself at local and transboundary levels, but the impact of global phenomena such as climate change and the key role water resources play as a global commons through teleconnections in water uses and in stabilising the earth system require coordinated and holistic approaches at the global level.

Science-Policy Roundtable

This science-policy roundtable will start with inputs on the current state of global water governance and the main outcomes of the UN Water Conference.
On this basis, practitioners and scientists from global North and global South will evaluate the outcomes of the conference: did it succeed in advancing the governance of water as a global common good?
Did it improve the integrated achievement of water-related SDGs and coordination with related UN institutions such as the UNFCCC, UNCCD, UNDRR and CBD?
The panel will also reflect on the causes and consequences of policy incoherence and related reform needs, including to adequately integrate different water users.

Background

The UN Water conference – time to govern water as a global commons! by Ines Dombrowsky and Annabelle Houdret (IDOS)

Speakers

• Johannes Cullmann, UN-Water Vice Chair and Scientific Advisor to the President of the UN General Assembly, World Meteorological Organisation
• Yunia Musaazi, Executive Director, Uganda Water and Sanitation NGO Network (UWASNET) & Water Integrity Network
• Robert Varady, Professor of Environmental Policy, Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, University of Arizona
• Aditi Mukherji, Director, Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Impact Area Platform, International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
• Ines Dombrowsky, Head, Environmental Governance and Transformation to Sustainability research programme, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)

Moderator

Annabelle Houdret, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), speaker of the BonnWaterNetwork