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UNESCO trains young water leaders on advocacy skills

In the second half of 2021, the UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP), together with its partner, Action Against Hunger, equipped 200 World Water Council Youth Delegates and young water leaders with the knowledge and skills needed for effective water advocacy and to enable them to facilitate advocacy training in their respective regions, through self-training (online), or through face-to-face training.

Education, capacity development and raising awareness

25 October 2022

Last update:20 April 2023

The training focused on enhancing capacities of young leaders for an informed participation ahead of the 9th World Water Forum, held in Dakar, Senegal, in March 2022 (for the first time in Sub-Saharan Africa).

The overall objective of the process was to ensure the meaningful participation of young water leaders during the 9th World Water Forum and its preparatory events (either virtual or physical). The specific objective was to support the Youth Delegates of the World Water Council to efficiently engage other young water leaders to build and convey their advocacy messages to the 9th World Water Forum and major preparatory events

One of the key roles of the Youth Delegates of the World Water Council, representing young water leaders of Africa and the Middle East, Asia, the Americas, and Europe, was to mobilize the youth of their regions on the way to the 9th World Water Forum. Their task was also to raise the voices of the young professionals in the global water sector by conveying their messages, opinions, key challenges, and propositions for solutions based on field and research evidence.

The advocacy training built therefore not only the Youth Delegates’ capacities in advocacy, but also enabled them to become advocacy trainers themselves, thus acting as impact multipliers and contributing to young professionals’ empowerment in the water sector globally.