IUCN at World Water Week 2023
World Water Week is the leading conference on global water issues, held every year since 1991. For the first time the event will be hosted at a new onsite venue at Waterfront Congress Centre in Stockholm between 20 – 24 August.
Online participation is free of charge this year, sign up for a free online pass to get access to over 300 sessions on water.
Srisailam Dam in Andhra Pradesh
The title this year is Seeds of Change: Innovative Ideas for a Water-Wise World with the aim to examine how innovation can help to get us back on track to achieve the global water and climate targets. New forms of technology are needed as well as innovative collaboration to ensure that new ideas are spread at scale. Many activities at World Water Week will be focused on discussions started at the UN Water conference in NYC this year, not least the High-Level Panels taking place on the Week’s Centre Stage.
Sunday 20 August 2023
11:00 - 12:30
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Online and on-site - (Room: A2) |
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New approaches of cooperation are needed to address drought risk proactively at all levels, through holistic approaches that include early warning, prevention, response and ultimately building drought resilience. The session will deal with understanding the full complexity and managing the risk in a horizontally and vertically integrated way across scales. |
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IUCN contact person: Chris Magero │ Lead: GWP │ Co-organizers: WMO, IUCN, IWMI, TNC, NOAA, National Drought, Mitigation Center (NDMC), FAO, UNCCD Secretariat |
14:00 - 15:30
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Online and on-site - (Room: A3) |
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Multi-sectoral opportunities for freshwater outcomes in the Global Biodiversity Framework |
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This session will explore what it will take to successfully implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) in inland waters around the world, how the GBF can help deliver SDGs, and how a coalition is coming together to provide finance, guidance, and science to underpin implementation. |
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IUCN contact person: James Dalton │ Lead: CI │ Co-organizers: IUCN, TNC Synchronicity Earth, WI, WWF |
16:00 - 17:30
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Online and on-site - (Room: A2) |
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Strengthening partnerships to build drought resilience in Southern Africa |
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This session highlights the need to address drought proactively, across sectors and scales, putting a spotlight on integrated, cooperative, and inclusive approaches. The session is informed by evidence from Southern Africa, showcasing initiatives for capacity building, resource mobilization, policy, and tools to strengthen drought resilience in the region. |
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IUCN contact person: Chris Magero, Davison Saruchera │ Lead: SADC │ Co-organizers: ADB, GWP, International Drought Resilience Alliance, IUCN, IWMI, UNCCD, Zambezi Watercourse Commission |
16:00 - 17:30
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Online and on-site - (Room: C4) |
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Voices from the Field: Source-to-Sea Stories from Around the World |
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This session shares experiences of implementing source-to-sea management from around the world in a variety of contexts. Innovative and holistic, the source-to-sea approach addresses critical challenges across the land-freshwater-coastal-marine continuum. The session highlights key lessons learned from these leading-edge applications and explore the next steps in developing source-to-sea management. |
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IUCN contact person: James Dalton │ Lead: SIWI │ Co-organizers: Action Platform for Source to Sea Management, Deltares, French Water Partnership, GEF, IW:LEARN, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, UNEP, UNDP-SIWI Water Governance Facility, UNDP, Water Science Policy, IUCN |
Tuesday 22 August 2023
07:00 - 08:00
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Online |
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Facilitating Transboundary Water Co-operation through Data and Information Exchange |
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During the session OSCE and IUCN will launch the Data and Information Exchange Toolkit and highlight the importance of data and information exchange in transboundary water management. The session will also provide an overview of current and available mechanisms to measure and monitor the conditions of shared freshwater for security. |
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IUCN contact person: Diego Jara │ Lead: OSCE │ Co-organizers: Central Asia Youth for Water Network, IUCN, SIWI, Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation |
08:00 - 09:00
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Online |
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Integrating Water Storage: First Steps in Assessment, Progress toward Incentives |
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The session will drill down into two practical aspects of how integrated water storage can be realized. First, how to measure and incorporate water volumes available in diverse storage types into one planning framework. Second, how to motivate institutional or behavioral changes required to realize integrated storage. |
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IUCN contact person: Davison Saruchera │ Lead: IWMI │ Co-organizers: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, World Bank, ICRISAT, IUCN, Swedish Farmer Association, WMO |
Wednesday 23 August 2023
11:00 - 12:30
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Online and on-site - (Room: A1) |
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High Level Panel on Innovative Approaches for Peace and Conflict Prevention |
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This annual High-Level Panel explores trends and developments related to water, climate change and conflict prevention. This year focuses on how on the ground actions and preventative diplomacy can reduce tensions, worsened by impacts of climate change and environmental degradation, that may erode stability and peace in shared waters. |
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IUCN contact person: James Dalton │ Lead: SIWI │ |
16:00 - 17:30
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Online and on-site - (Room: C2) |
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While commitments to regenerative agriculture are increasing, the contribution and relationship to water is not well understood at the peril of creating aspirational but unattainable goals. This session will explore the opportunity that water-related metrics can bring to the real-world contextualization of regenerative agriculture. |
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IUCN contact person: Maria Carreño Lindelien │ Lead: IUCN │ Co-organizers: CA4SH, Centre for International Forestry Research, IUCN, World Agroforestry Centre, WWF |
Thursday 24 August 2023
09:00 - 09:40
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Online and on-site - (Room: talk shows, 27) |
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Progress in transboundary water cooperation is too slow. This can multiply risks and contribute to instability and conflicts. Innovative technologies and approaches in analysing transboundary dynamics and informing collaborative water management can help address the bottlenecks and obstacles as well as promote ways to enhance the existing transboundary water cooperation |
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IUCN contact person: Maria Carreño Lindelien │ Lead: Transboundary Water Cooperation Coalition |
11:00 - 12:30
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Online and on-site - (Room: C1) |
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This session focuses on the challenges international water law (IWL) is facing – from climate change to increasing pressure on water resources and from influences of other legal regimes to declining multilateralism – and discusses responses to those. It aims at identifying innovative ways that can reform IWL and ensure its resilience. |
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IUCN contact person: Diego Jara │ Lead: IHE Delft │ Co-organizers: Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, UNECE, IUCN |