| Issue 63. 6 March 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
"One of the shortcomings of the MDGs was an emphasis on delivery and overlooking the underlying causes of poverty and inequality." Looking into International Women’s Day 2015, we invite you to read the interview to Ms. Alice Bouman-Dentener, Honorary Founding President of Women for Water Partnership (WfWP), at the occasion of the 2015 UN-Water International Zaragoza Conference. |
| #WaterForLifeVoices
'Water for Life Voices' Exhibition in UN Headquarters to highlight progress during the Water Decade Date: 9 March to 14 April 2015 Achieving the Water for Life Decade’s goals has needed sustained commitment, engagement, cooperation and investment from all. As the Decade is officially drawing to a close in 2015, the UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication (UNW-DPAC)wants to show how people’s efforts have contributed to its success. To this end, the Water for Life Voices campaign has gathered the voices of those whose life has changed over the last 10 years due to water and sanitation. Selected contributions from the campaign will form the exhibition at the UN Headquarters from 9 March to 14 April 2015. It is hoped that the exhibition will bring the voices of beneficiaries of water programmes over the Decade and highlight the human aspect of water programmes, and thus help support the inclusion of such considerations into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). As Josefina Maestu, Director of the Office to support the Water for Life Decade, explains: "This exhibit brings the lives and voices of the beneficiaries of water programmes right into the halls of the UN General Assembly. It serves as a reminder to the UN’s top decision makers of just how much impact their work has had on people over the last Decade. It should also show visitors how much has been done, and how much there is yet to do to ensure continued development and progress for all the world’s peoples." |
| In the news | Forthcoming events |
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#Water&ConflictNew UN Report: Invest in Water to Prevent Conflict
The new report "Water in the World we Want", prepared by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) in association with the Global Water Partnership and Canada’s McMaster University, warns that without large new water-related investments many societies worldwide will soon confront rising conflicts over life’s most essential resource. Published in the run-up to the adoption this September of post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the report provides an in-depth analysis of 10 countries to show how achieving water and sanitation-related SDGs offers a rapid, cost effective way to achieve sustainable development. Among top recommendations: Hold the agriculture sector (roughly 70% of world water supplies) and the energy sector (15%) accountable for making efficiencies while transitioning to clean energy including hydropower. The report underscores the need for clearly defined anti-corruption protocols enforced with harsh penalties. The Department of Public Information (DPI) launched "2015: Time for Global Action", the UN system-wide campaign that aims to build public support for the sustainable development agenda and show how the issues behind some of this year’s most important events are interconnected. As part of the campaign, a new website is now live and will shortly be available in all six official UN languages. This website will serve as a source of news, as a portal to UN system websites, and as the anchor for a robust social media campaign. It will also link to the extensive civil society mobilization under way through the concurrent Action 2015 campaign. UNESCO-IHP Malaysia in collaboration with UNESCO Jakarta, Water Footprint Network, Malaysian Water Partnership and Malaysian Capacity Development Network in Sustainable Water Management (MyCDNet), private organisations, lecturers and NGOs organised the Southeast Asia (SEA) Water Footprint Training Course from 24 to 26 February 2015 at Ampang, Malaysia. Participants previously trained in Pretoria, South Africa, under the Cap-Net UNDP funded initiative in 2013 were the facilitators for invited lead trainer Dr. Ashok Chapagain from the Water Footprint Network. A total of 47 participants took part in this course and had the opportunity to learn about water footprint assessment concepts and methodology; exchange knowledge and good practices in water footprint assessment approaches at the Malaysian level; and promote networking for capacity building in water footprint approaches in water management. Cap-Net selected participants for a video interview on the immediate impacts and their plans to apply the new knowledge back at their home country. This guidance note aims to explain key features of the irrigation subsector and identify entry points for mapping governance risks. It is part of a series of guidance notes for selected sectors and subsectors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The guidance note offers a framework for mapping governance risks to inform the preparation of future country partnership strategies, and supplements ADB’s Guidelines for Implementing the Second Governance and Anticorruption Action Plan. Section 2 highlights the significance of irrigation and its challenges. Section 3 presents a descriptive overview of the key features of the irrigation subsector, mainly for governance specialists involved in risk assessments who may not be familiar with this subsector. Section 4 outlines subsector risks that include priorities of public financial management, procurement, and combating corruption. |
#Gender&Water International Women's Day 2015: Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity
Date: 8 March 2015 Place: Worldwide International Women’s Day takes place on 8 March each year to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities. This year’s theme, "Empowering Women - Empowering Humanity: Picture It!" envisions a world where each woman and girl can exercise her choices, such as participating in politics, getting an education, having an income, and living in societies free from violence and discrimination. In developing nations the responsibility for collecting water every day falls disproportionately on women and girls. On average women in these regions spend 25% of their day collecting water for their families. ’Water is Equality’ is one of this year’s World Water Day topics. To make the linkages between World Water Day 2015 and International Women's Day 2015, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, together with Women for Water Partnership, is organizing its annual Women's Day conference with a World Water Day twist: 'Women and Water Make Sustainable Food Security Happen', on 12 March 2015. Date: 13 March 2015 This event seeks to (i) raise awareness and break the taboo surrounding sanitation and menstrual hygiene management; and (ii) highlight country case studies to better understand the nature and consequences of the problem, and how to address them. It draws on the Open Work Group on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Secretary General’s Synthesis Report on the Post -2015 development agenda. SDGs 3, 4, 5, 6 and 11 clearly articulate the need for health, education, water and sanitation services and human settlements to be prerequisites to achieving Goal 5 - gender equality in all its forms. The experience-sharing and presentations will be followed by a moderated discussion with Government representatives, policymakers and other practitioners, which will address the relevance of this issue in the post-2015 agenda. Date: 24-25 March 2015 The objective of the meeting is to increase understanding of the water, energy and food security nexus and foster discussion on how this conceptual framework can support efforts to improve integrated natural resources management and progress towards sustainable development in the Arab region. The meeting is organized back-to-back with the 10th Session of the ESCWA Committee on Energy (Amman, 22-23 March 2015) and the 11th Session of the ESCWA Committee on Water Resources (Amman, 26-27 March 2015). |
