| Issue 57. 23 January 2015 | www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/decade_weekly.shtml |
| This week in focus | Editor’s note
Welcome to the Decade’s Weekly! Every week 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 ToolBox. Implementing the water related Sustainable Development Goals. |
| #WaterSustainableDevelopment
2015 UN-Water International Zaragoza Conference concludes moving #From Vision to Action with analysis of water-related SDGs and the role of the different stakeholders for their implementation "2015 is an important year. An important year for disaster risk reduction, an important year for climate and an important year for water," said the UN-Water Chair, Michel Jarraud in his welcome video message to the 300 participants at the UN-Water International Conference. The Conference, which took place from 15 to 17 January in Zaragoza, Spain, was organised by the United Nations Office to Support the International Decade for Action ’Water for Life’ 2005-2015 implementing the UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication (UNW-DPAC), in collaboration with 18 UN-Water members, 13 partners and 21 other collaborating organizations and Governments. Participants included the UN-Water Vice-Chair, the Vice President of the Global Compact, delegates from 18 water programmes from the UN, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, and the Coordinator of the UN-Water Working Group on Water related Sustainable Development Goals. Exchanges, inputs, conclusions and some important questions were delivered through presentations from experts with varied backgrounds and experience. The conference took an inclusive media approach with coverage through a live webcast, reported through twitter feeds and daily summaries. Conference outputs, including a compilation of case studies, a ToolBox with numerous tools developed by the different UN entities, and information briefs providing a background on some of the issues discussed, are now available at the Conference website, to help us prepare for World Water Day 2015, which will focus on "water and sustainable development". |
| In the news | Forthcoming events |
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#GroundwaterGroundwater Webinar reviews lessons and looks into key topics for 2015
On 15 January 2015, the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC) and UNESCO International Hydrological Programme (UNESCO-IHP) organized the LEARN Groundwater Webinar entitled: "Moving with the Momentum: Reviewing Lessons for Groundwater from 2014 and a Looking Ahead to 2015". During this webinar, experts from various organizations shared their views and experiences regarding three groundwater-related topics, namely: Sustainable Development Goals and Groundwater, Developments in International Law Applicable to Groundwater, and Assessing Transboundary Aquifers. The presentations are now available online. The first comprehensive guidance for companies about how to meet their responsibility to respect the human rights to water and sanitation was launched on 16 January 2015 by the United Nations Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate at UN-Water’s 2015 Annual International Zaragoza Conference on ’Water and Sustainable Development: From Vision to Action’. The beta version of the ’Guidance for Companies on Respecting the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation: Bringing a Human Rights Lens to Corporate Water Stewardship’ aims at helping companies translate their responsibility to respect the human rights to water and sanitation into their existing water management policies, practices, and company cultures. "Ensuring people have access to water and sanitation services is vital to ensure healthy communities and vibrant economies," affirmed Gavin Power, Deputy Director of the UN Global Compact and Head of the CEO Water Mandate. The UN World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) has launched a groundbreaking project to develop and test the collection of key gender-disaggregated water data. The project will develop through 4 phases, with the help of international experts in the Working Group. The second workshop of the project took place in December 2014 with the aim of finalising the WWAP toolkit of the Gender Sensitive Water Assessment and Reporting project, with the production of a guideline-manual to be used by practitioners in various regions and a questionnaire to be used in field assessments. In February the WWAP will conclude the first phase of the project and will start working on the second phase, during which the pilot-testing of the toolkit will be implemented. |
#ClimateDiplomacy UNITAR Launches New Course on Climate Change Diplomacy
Date: 23 February - 19 April 2015 The new online course ’Climate Change Diplomacy: Negotiating Effectively under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’ is now open for registration. The Course aims to develop participants’ understanding of the climate change policy framework, by building an appreciation of the science, causes and impacts of climate change, the history of the policy making process and the UNFCCC framework. Date: 19-20 March 2015 In accordance with the work plan for 2013-2015 under the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention), a workshop on transboundary flood risk management will bring together professionals from around the world working on this topic. The workshop will offer a platform to share experiences, good practices, challenges and lessons learned on issues such as sustainable flood risk management policies, institutional and legal arrangements for flood risk management in a transboundary context, flood forecasting and flood risk mapping. The workshop will also reflect on the relevance of disaster risk reduction for transboundary flood risk management. |
