NOON BRIEFING HIGHLIGHTS

Spokesperson for General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi
United Nations Headquarters, New York

Tuesday, 25 October 2022

PREPARATORY MEETING

Underway today is the preparatory meeting for the UN 2023 Water Conference that will be held in March of next year.

One of the goal of today’s preparatory meeting is to finalize the themes of the interactive dialogues for March.

There are five themes on the table. They were proposed in July by the two co-heads of the conference – Tajikistan and Netherlands. Those are:

  • Water for Health
  • Water for Development
  • Water for Climate, Resilience and Environment
  • Water for Cooperation
  • Water Action Decade

The themes are supported by the five principles of the SDG6 Global Acceleration Framework.

And these suggestions are based on previous consultations and outcomes of preparatory processes – such as the water dialogues for result in Bonn or the World Water Forum in Dakar.

President Csaba Kőrösi today said that this process was inclusive, cross-sectorial in nature and action-oriented. He also called them “the most comprehensive” in recent years, with consultations held around the world.

Right now, Member States and other relevant stakeholders are voicing their opinions about the themes.

By this afternoon, their points will be incorporated – and action is expected on the proposed themes.

This morning, the conference started with summaries of the key messages from yesterday’s stakeholder consultation.

That focused on game changers, you’ll recall.

Some of those game changers include an open science-based validation mechanism for resilience and sustainability in water. This could be modeled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC. Which provides policy makers with regular, up-to-date date and information.

There is also a suggestion of an open global water information system and platform that would integrate data relevant for SDG-6, to support preparedness and resilience.

Another suggested gamechanger is an Early Warnings for All System. This is something that the Secretary-General has also called for, and will be discussed further at COP-27 in Egypt.

An initial summary of the gamechangers from yesterday’s roundtables is now available. It will be posted on the OPGA website as soon as possible.

Following today’s discussions, President Kőrösi said that he hears “the sounds of the future”.  He hears opportunity of making change, and sees the opportunity for transformation.

BILATERALS

Ahead of today’s meeting, President Kőrösi met with Gilbert Houngbo, who is the Chair of UN Water, in addition to being the ILO Director-General.

QUESTIONS

There were no questions for the Spokesperson.