The Pan-European Regional Preparatory Meeting for the 2023 UN Water conference was organized as a hybrid meeting on 12-13 April 2022 in Geneva and online.
The Regional Preparatory Meeting provided a platform for UNECE member States and stakeholders to review progress and showcase effective ways to implement the goals and objectives of the International Water Action Decade, and water-related goals in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The meeting was organized in cooperation with UN-Water and discussed issues such as access to water and sanitation, transboundary and intersectoral water cooperation, ecosystem and biodiversity conservation, pollution prevention, floods and droughts, financing water, circular economy etc. The meeting provided inputs on regional priorities, challenges and good practices into the UN Secretary-General report and the United Nations 2023 Water Conference (22-24 March 2023, New York/ online) more broadly.
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Expert Meeting on Monitoring, Assessment and Data Exchange
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The Expert Meeting on Monitoring, Assessment and Data Exchange in the framework of the Water Convention was held in Geneva and online on 13 and 14 April 2022.
The objectives of the Expert Meeting were to:
- Review and provide comments to the first draft of the updated Strategies for Monitoring and Assessment of Transboundary Rivers, Lakes and Groundwaters.
- Discuss and provide input to the extended outline of the new publication on Good practices and lessons learned in transboundary data exchange and receive feedback from partners on how to collect specific examples;
- Discuss next steps to develop these two publications.
The meeting outcomes now provide input for presenting a revised version of the documents above to the joint meeting of the Working Groups on IWRM and on monitoring and assessment to be held on 28 to 30 June in Estonia.
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@9WorldWaterForum: transboundary Water Cooperation is crucial to achieve water security, peace, and sustainable development!
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The Water Convention Secretariat (UNECE) co-organized several sessions of the 9th World Water Forum (21-26 March 2022 / Dakar, Senegal).
In particular, the Water Convention Secretariat coordinated the Ordinary Thematic Sessions of Action Group 3B “Implement transboundary cooperation to foster peace and prevent conflicts” and the Keystone Roundtable discussion for Priority 3 on “Cooperation”. Additionally, UNECE organized the Pavilion on Transboundary Water Cooperation, which ran for the whole duration of the Forum, and contributed to the Basins Organizations’ Segment for Water Security, organised by INBO.
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The Implementation Committee of the Water Convention
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The Implementation Committee met in its renewed composition on 24-25 February 2022. The Convention’s focal points from Montenegro and Albania informed the Committee on progress made in implementation of its legal and technical advice provided to these two countries in the framework of the advisory procedure. The Committee held a discussion with the World Bank on possible collaboration to facilitate and support implementation of and compliance with the Convention. In a dedicated session, the Committee discussed cooperation with the Compliance Committee under the Protocol on Water and Health.
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#Uganda: workshop developed a roadmap for accession to the Water Convention
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On 15 and 16 February 2022, a national workshop related to Uganda’s accession to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes was organized in in Entebbe, Uganda. This event aimed to increase awareness and understanding of the Convention with officials, including those from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development.
The overall objective was to inform stakeholders about the Water Convention, to discuss the next steps in the accession process.
The workshop brought together over 80 participants from different ministries, basin (Nile Basin Initiative, Lake Victoria Basin Commission) and regional organizations (Intergovernmental Authority on Development), the United Nations, academia and civil society among others and resulted in a roadmap for the accession.
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UNECE EU4Environment- Water and Data in Easter Partner Countries
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UNECE has joined efforts with partners in implementation of a new programme EU4Environment – Water and Data in Eastern Partner Countries launched in January 2022 with financial support of the European Union. The Programme contributes to sustainable water resources management and policy development, sound environmental statistics and open data. Following up on the comprehensive EU support provided in the scope of the European Water Initiative Plus (EUWI+) and the Shared Environmental Information System Phase II, the new programme focuses on updating and reinforcing the capacity of water management agencies and laboratories and of environmental data producers in the partner countries.
Within the EU4Environment – Water and Data programme, strategies for the protection and careful use of water in the Eastern Partnership countries, linkages between water and health agendas will be further developed and prepared for implementation in the period 2022-2024. The basis for these strategies is the Sustainable Development Goals, international agreements such as the Water Convention and the Protocol on Water and Health and the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive. National Policy Dialogues on IWRM will continue to be supported through the new Programme.
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#WaterConvention: More and more countries are advancing in the process of accession
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More and more countries are advancing in the process of accession to the Water Convention. In Cameroon, after the national workshop on the Water Convention, the President of the Republic signed the law for accession (December 2021). In Ivory Coast, On 12 January 2022, the government approved the law of accession to the Water Convention. On 13 January 2022, the Gambia’s Council of Ministers approved the law of accession to the Water Convention.
Accession to the Convention for these three countries is expected soon!
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2022 - More activities ahead!
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The Thirteenth meeting of the Working Group on Water and Health under the Protocol on Water and Health will be held on 19-20 May 2022 in Geneva and online. This meeting will be a crucial milestone for preparing the sixth session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol (November 2022) and discuss the future draft work programme of the Protocol for 2023-2025.
On 28-30 June 2022 in Tallinn, Estonia, will take place the fourth Joint meeting of the Working Group on IWRM and Working Group on Monitoring and Assessment including an event marking the 30th anniversary of the Water Convention.
Many more activities are being planned. We will keep you updated in our next newsletter!
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