 16th Session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development: WWAP to host sessions on ‘Monitoring Global Freshwater Resources’ and ‘Emerging trends in the WWDR-3’
The sixteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-16), located at the United Nations headquarters in New York, began on Monday, May 5th and will last until Friday, May 16th, 2008. During the first week of activities, delegates began considering the CSD’s thematic cluster for 2008/2009 - agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification and Africa.
May 12th and 13th, the CSD reviews thematic topics from previous years, including ‘water’. WWAP will co-host a session on ‘Monitoring Global Freshwater Resources’ with UN-Water and the World Water Council on Tuesday the 13th, from 1:15 – 2:45. Additionally, WWAP will host a session later that evening, from 6:15 – 7:45 on ‘Emerging Trends in the WWDR-3, Water in a Changing World’.
For more information on the CSD-16, please see the UN website on the CSD-16. Additionally, for information and reports on the daily activities at the CSD-16, please see the Earth Negotiations Bulletin.
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Villa La Colombella, Perugia, Italy
© UNESCO - M. Ravassard |
WWAP hosted Integration Meeting on the Third UN World Water Development Report
During the last week of April, over 80 experts from 26 countries met to discuss the state of the world’s freshwater resources at the new WWAP headquarters in the Villa La Colombella in Perugia, Italy. An important step in the development of the WWDR-3, “Water in a Changing World”, the seven-day meeting brought experts from around the world to discuss draft final chapters and a set of messages for the world’s decision and policy makers responsible for governing water resources. Along with the writers, contributors, chapter coordinators, and members of UN-Water, WWAP was pleased to welcome the members of the Technical Advisory Group for the WWDR-3 to share their inputs and comments on the draft text, as well as the important contributions of expert groups.
At the opening session of the week’s activities, participants were welcomed to the Umbria Region of Italy by the Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development of the Umbria Region, Assessore Lamberto Bottini. Participants were also greeted and welcomed to the week of discussion and working sessions on the third report by Mr Olcay Unver, Coordinator of WWAP, Andras Szolllosi-Nagy, Director of the Division of Water and Secretary of the International Hydrological Programme of UNESCO, Mr Uri Shamir, Professor Emeritus of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, and Mr. Lucio Ubertini, Direttore dell’Istituto de Ricerca per la Protezione Idrogeologoca del CNR. After these opening sessions, participants proceeded to spend the rest of the week working on the final drafts of report chapters.
The report represents a new approach to monitoring and reporting on water issues, which are vital to meeting global development goals of access to clean water and better sanitation for the world’s poor. Developed through a more participatory process which includes inputs from hundreds of experts around the world and public comments, the report will take a more holistic approach to freshwater monitoring and reporting. The recommendations and messages discussed during the meeting will be a vital part of deciding how the world can better manage this important global resource.
WWAP would like to thank everyone who contributed their time, energy and hard work to the meeting’s success.
For more information, please see WWDR-3 “Water in a Changing World”
 First Directors’ Meeting of the three UN-Water Programs
On April 7th, WWAP hosted the first meeting of the directors of three UN-Water Programs, attended by Mr Reza Ardakanian from the UN-Water Decade Programme for Capacity Development (UNW-DPC), Mr Carlos Fernández-Jáuregui from the UN Office to Support the International Decade for Action “Water for Life” 2005-2015 (UNO-IDfA) and Mr Olcay Ünver from WWAP. During the meeting, the directors discussed areas of cooperation and opportunities for synergy. They identified program activities for potential collaboration, including capacity development; information dissemination; advocacy, outreach and public relations; and technical and policy guidance. The directors plan to meet four times a year to continue discussion on potential synergies and collaborations.
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