| Issue 58. 30 January 2015 | www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/decade_weekly.shtml |
| This week in focus | Editor’s note
Welcome to the Decade’s Weekly! Every week until 22 March 2015 we bring you the latest news from the International Decade for Action ’Water for Life’ 2005-2015. Please feel free to share this newsletter. You can also access this newsletter online. Tip of the week
For the 2015 UN-Water International Zaragoza Conference and in preparation for World Water Day 2015, the UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication (UNW-DPAC) has produced a series of information briefs on the implementation of the different sub-themes of current proposals of the water related sustainable development goals. |
| #Innovation&SDGs
UNECE Ideas for Change Award: Innovation for Sustainable Development Goals 2015, the year of the 70th anniversary of the UN, is key milestone for the world. UN Member States will adopt an ambitious and action-oriented post-2015 development agenda with Sustainable Development Goals, in New York in September. At the same time, there is a "startup revolution" going on, producing most of the innovation with an impact on our daily life, and changing the way we do business. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) wants to bring such powerful engine of transformation into the work for sustainable development and the green economy to improve people’s wellbeing. On 14 April 2015, UNECE will host the first ever startups’ event at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The event will show-case how innovative entrepreneurial talent can contribute to address today’s social and environmental challenges, through new groundbreaking ideas that can become successful business. It will take place in the context of the 2015 UNECE session in Geneva (14-16 April), a high-level inter-governmental gathering where delegates of 56 Member States will commit to actions to advance the sustainable development agenda in the region in the years to come. The deadline for the call for ideas is 28 February 2015! UNECE is looking for innovative ideas and new solutions for sustainable development in a wide range of directly related fields, which may include water and sanitation. They are interested not only in products and technologies but also in social innovation and new ways of doing things! |
| In the news | Forthcoming events |
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#Post2015Post-2015 intergovernmental negotiations: Stocktaking session
With less than 250 days to the target date for achieving the MDGs, the stock-taking meeting which took place from 19-21 January 2015 provided an opportunity for exchange of views on the inputs for the negotiations including the proposal on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the report of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing, the recommendations from the Structured Dialogues on a technology facilitation mechanism and the Secretary-General’s Synthesis Report. “We have a heavy but noble responsibility to finalize the new agenda on a strict timeline, so that our Heads of State and Government can adopt it during the forthcoming Summit scheduled for 25-27 September,” said UN General Assembly President Sam Kutesa as he opened the stocktaking session. In the meeting many member states reiterated the importance of a transparent and inclusive follow up and review framework for the delivery of the post-2015 development agenda. "The Water Rooms" is an outreach project led by the United Nations World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) to be presented at EXPO 2015 - the Universal Exposition - and consists of a video-itinerary of five sequential "rooms" that will trigger interest and encourage learning about water resources and their sustainable management. Each room aims at offering a fun and emotional experience inviting the viewer to reflect on the dynamics affecting the resource and the actors managing it. From 21 to 23 January 2015 WWAP organised a brainstorming and writing exercise to create the storylines for each Water Room, and brought together scientists and technical experts on one side and creatives, filmmakers and writers, on the other. The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) announces that applications are now being accepted for the new Erasmus+ Joint Master Degree in AquaCulture, Environment, and Society that will start in September 2015 with the Scottish Association of Marine Sciences (SAMS), of which UNU-INWEH is a partner. Over 10 full Erasmus + Scholarships will be awarded each year to the top applicants. These scholarships will cover tuition fees, living, and travel expenses. Deadline for applications is 20 February 2015. Sanitation professionals from the Global Sanitation Fund (GSF) programmes in Benin and Madagascar joined their GSF counterparts in Togo in a workshop held mid-January in the capital, Lomé. Around 70 participants, including EU and Togolese government delegates pooled collective experience in promoting improved sanitation and gained a better understanding of the context, aims and intervention of the Global Sanitation Fund. The workshop focused on strategies for implementation of community-led total sanitation (CLTS) and exchanged on how best to harness behavior change communications to stimulate communities to end open defecation by building latrines. The GSF-supported programme in Togo is managed by UNICEF for an initial three years, working together with the Hygiene and Sanitation Department of the Ministry of Health. |
#BiosphereReserves International Advisory Committee for Biosphere Reserves: 21st Meeting
Date: 2 to 5 February 2015 International experts will meet from 2 to 5 February 2015, at UNESCO Headquarters, to review submissions for new biosphere reserves and extensions to existing ones. This Committee will provide recommendations to the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme governing body, the International -Coordinating Council (MAB-ICC) on scientific and technical matters concerning the nomination of new sites, and changes and periodic reviews of sites already included in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR), as well as the functioning of this network. Biosphere reserves are considered by UNESCO to be particularly appropriate places to test, evaluate and implement innovative strategies in freshwater. Date: 6 February 2015 The symposium will reflect on how key Delft water institutes collaborate in research, development and capacity building for the international water sector. The Delft Triangle consists of Delft University of Technology, Deltares and UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. The symposium will show how the institutes of the Delft Triangle jointly contribute to international development (with water as a lead principle) and business cooperation (by contributing to business matches between partners and partner countries). Date: 12 - 13 February 2015 The meeting aims to discuss implementation of the current programme of work, the future programme of work for 2016-2018 and the preparations for the seventh Meeting of the Parties, to be held on 17-20 November in Budapest. The Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) aims to protect and ensure the quantity, quality and sustainable use of transboundary water resources by facilitating cooperation. |
#WaterMonographs
Presentation of "Water Monographs" at the 2015 UN-Water International Zaragoza Conference
The UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication (UNW-DPAC), the World Council of Civil Engineers and Fundación Aquae, presented the second "Water Monographs", in which the three entities have been collaborating since 2013 to raise awareness of topics identified by UN as priorities for the last three years of the "Water for Life Decade": water cooperation (2013), water and energy (2014) and sustainable development (2015), at the 2015 UN-Water Annual International Zaragoza Conference. The presentation took place in the framework of the side event "Management and innovation in water and energy in Ibero-America", under the auspices of the three institutions.
>> Video presentation of Water Monographs at UN-Water Zaragoza Conference
>> Water Monographs video presentation