2nd Global Online Stakeholder Consultation: Proposed Themes for Interactive Dialogues for UN Conference on Water

 UN 2023 Water Conference 

Second Global Online Stakeholder Consultation 

Contribute your inputs on the themes proposed by the co-hosts for the UN 2023 Water Conference interactive dialogues! 

Deadline: 30 September 2022 

Add your inputs here: bit.ly/Input2023WaterConference 

Background

On 21 December 2016, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 71/222 to declare 2018-2028 as International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development”. The objectives of the Decade include greater focus on the sustainable development and integrated management of water resources for the achievement of social, economic and environmental objectives and on the implementation and promotion of related programmes and projects, as well as on the furtherance of cooperation and partnership at all levels in order to help to achieve internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, including those contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.  

Furthermore, the General Assembly, in its resolution 73/226, decided to convene, in New York, from 22 to 24 March 2023, the United Nations Conference on the “Midterm Comprehensive Review of the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Decade for Action, ‘Water for Sustainable Development’, 2018–2028” (United Nations 2023 Water Conference).  

The General Assembly, in its resolution 75/212, further decided that the Conference shall comprise an Opening and a Closing ceremony, six Plenary Meetings and five interactive dialogues.  

The co-hosts of the Conference, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of Tajikistan, after consulting with Member States, United Nations Entities and stakeholders have shared a proposal of themes for the interactive dialogues: 

1. Water for Health: Access to safe drinking water, hygiene and sanitation (SDG 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 and SDGs 1, 3, 4, 5, 17); 

2. Water for Development: Valuing Water, Water-Energy-Food Nexus and Sustainable Economic and Urban Development (SDG 6.3, 6.4, 6.5 and SDGs 2, 8, 9, 11, 12); 

3. Water for Climate, Resilience and Environment: Source to Sea, Biodiversity, Climate, Resilience and DRR (SDGs 6.5, 6.6, 7, 11.5, 13, 14, 15); 

4. Water for Cooperation: Transboundary and International Water Cooperation, Cross Sectoral Cooperation and Water Across the 2030 Agenda (SDG 6.5, 6.b and SDG 16, 17); 

5. Water Action Decade: Accelerating the implementation of the objectives of the Decade including through the UN SG’s Action Plan. 

The themes are supported by the five accelerators of the SDG6 Global Acceleration Framework (Financing, Data and Information, Capacity Development, Innovation, and Governance) and the three principles of the Conference (Inclusive, Cross Sectoral and Action Oriented). 

The themes of the interactive dialogues and other outstanding organizational matters pertaining to the Conference will be finalized during a one-day preparatory meeting to be held on 25 October 2022 at the UN Headquarters in New York to be hosted by the President of the UN General Assembly. To ensure the meaningful participation of all relevant stakeholders, the President is also convening a one-day stakeholder consultation on 24 October 2022. More information can be found here. 

Second Global Online Stakeholder Consultation: Contribute inputs on the draft Themes for Interactive Dialogues 

In early 2022, stakeholders were invited to contribute proposals for the themes of the interactive dialogues through a first global online consultation. The summary report can be accessed here.  

To ensure meaningful and substantive engagement of stakeholders in preparation for the UN 2023 Water Conference, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, academic institutions, the scientific community, the private sector, philanthropic organizations and other stakeholders are invited to contribute their views, comments and inputs on the themes proposed by the co-hosts for the interactive dialogues through this second global online consultation (Deadline for submission is 30 September 2022). 

Format and Structure

The online consultation is now open to all stakeholders through the below online forms.

Stakeholders are asked to provide comments, suggestions and inputs on the five themes that have been proposed by the co-hosts for the interactive dialogues. In addition, stakeholders will have the opportunity to express their perspectives on additional key issues that could be considered during the UN 2023 Water Conference. 

The online forms are available in English only. Submission in English is preferred, but submissions in any UN official languages will also be considered (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian).  

The deadline for submission is Friday, 30 September 2022. 

Please find here a link to a flyer for the second online global stakeholder consultation.

Outcomes

Proposed Theme	Form	Responses
1. Water for health	bit.ly/Water4HealthForm	bit.ly/Water4HealthResponses
2. Water for development	bit.ly/Water4DevelopmentForm	bit.ly/Water4DevelopmentResponses
3. Water for climate, resilience and environment	bit.ly/Water4ClimateForm	bit.ly/Water4ClimateResponses
4. Water for cooperation	bit.ly/Water4CooperationForm	bit.ly/Water4CooperationResponses
5. Water Action Decade	bit.ly/WaterActionDecadeForm	bit.ly/WaterActionDecadeResponses
Additional Inputs	bit.ly/WaterAdditionalInputsForm	bit.ly/WaterAdditionalInputsResponses

A summary, including outcomes of the consultation and key inputs/messages, will be prepared by UN DESA and made publicly available on the official UN 2023 Water Conference website.  

The summary is expected to be available and shared before the one-day preparatory meeting convened by the President of the General Assembly on 25 October 2022 and the one-day stakeholder consultation on 24 October 2022 as an additional, informal input for Member States delegations, and interested stakeholders.