IISD RS @ Post-2015 Development Agenda Consultation on Water, Summary Highlights, Geneva, Switzerland

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3 March

Post-2015 Development Agenda Consultation on Water: Water Resources Management and Wastewater Management and Water Quality

27-28 February 2013 | Geneva, Switzerland

Highlights for Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Daily web coverage (click on the following links to see our daily web pages)

Introduction - 27 February - 28 February

Post-2015 Development Agenda Consultation on Water

The meeting on the Post-2015 Development Agenda Consultation on Water: Water Resources Management and Wastewater Management and Water Quality convened on 27 February 2013, at the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland. The meeting, sponsored by the Government of Switzerland, is part of the Thematic Consultation on Water, coordinated by UN-Water, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). The meeting focused on two of the three streams of discussion under the Thematic Consultation: Water Resources Management (WRM), facilitated by the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE); and Wastewater Management and Water Quality (WWMWQ), facilitated by UN-Habitat/Aquafed.

Following the opening ceremony, the meeting convened panel sessions on WRM and WWMWQ, which presented the main messages of the web consultations on these themes and commented on the issues raised, the gaps and possible implications for the way forward. During the afternoon, participants split into eight discussion groups addressing the key priority issues that should be included in a post-2015 development agenda, which then reported back to plenary, identifying key issues.

The “Broken Chair” sculpture with the Palais des Nations in the background.

The Celestial Sphere Woodrow Wilson Memorial

Room view during the opening of the meeting

Opening Ceremony

Panel L-R: Bert Diphoorn, Director, Human Settlements and Financing Division, UN-Habitat; George Yarngo, Assistant Minister of Public Works, Liberia; Michel Jarraud, Chair, UN-Water, Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization (WMO); Michael Gerber, Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation; Martin Dahinden, Director-General, Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation; Sven Alkalaj, Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE); Maria Neira, Director, Public Health and Environment, World Health Organization (WHO); and Maarten Gischler, Deputy Head, Water and Environment, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands

Bert Diphoorn, Director, Human Settlements and Financing Division, UN-Habitat

Martin Dahinden, Director-General, Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation

Sven Alkalaj, Executive Secretary, UNECE

Michael Gerber, Ambassador, Special Representative, Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation

Maria Neira, Director, Public Health and Environment, WHO

George Yarngo, Assistant Minister of Public Works, Liberia

Chair Michel Jarraud, UN-Water, Secretary-General, WMO

Maarten Gischler, Deputy Head, Water and Environment, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands

First Panel: Water Resources Management

Panel L-R: Ruth Beukman, Executive Secretary, Global Water Partnership (GWP), Southern Africa Regional Partnership; Gábor Baranyai, Deputy State Secretary for EU Sectoral Policies, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hungary; Anada Tiéga, Secretary General, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands; Sibylle Vermont, Swiss Federal Office for the Environment; François Münger, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; Michael Glantz, Director, Consortium for Capacity Building, University of Colorado; Joppe Cramwinckel, Director for Water, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD); and Peter McCornick, Deputy Director General for Research, International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

François Münger, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

Michael Glantz, Director, Consortium for Capacity Building, University of Colorado

Logo symbolizing international cooperation on water developed by the Swiss government

Gábor Baranyai, Deputy State Secretary for EU Sectoral Policies, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hungary

Anada Tiéga, Secretary General, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

Joppe Cramwinckel, Director for Water, WBCSD

Ruth Beukman, Executive Secretary, GWP, Southern Africa Regional Partnership

Sibylle Vermont, Swiss Federal Office for the Environment

Peter McCornick, Deputy Director General for Research, IWMI

Second Panel: Wastewater Management and Water Quality

Panel L-R: Anthony Cox, Head of Climate, Biodiversity and Water Division, Environment Directorate, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); Gérard Payen, President, AquaFed; Sibylle Vermont, Swiss Federal Office for the Environment; François Münger, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; Katharine Cross, International Water Association (IWA); Vincent Sweeney, Coordinator, Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land Based Activities (GPA), UN Environment Programme (UNEP); and Graham Alabaster, Chief, Waste Management and Sanitation, Urban Basic Services Branch, UN-Habitat

Vincent Sweeney, Coordinator, GPA, UNEP

Anthony Cox, Head of Climate, Biodiversity and Water Division, Environment Directorate, OECD

Graham Alabaster, Chief, Waste Management and Sanitation, Urban Basic Services Branch, UN-Habitat

Katharine Cross, IWA

Gérard Payen, President, AquaFed

High-level interventions from the floor

Kedebe Gerba Gemosa, Minister of Water and Energy, Ethiopia

Khaled Fahmy, Minister of State for Environmental Affairs, Egypt

Sarah Ochekpe, Minister of Water Resources, Nigeria

Mariyam Shakeela, Minister of Environment and Energy, Maldives

Sulton Rahimov, First Deputy Minister, Ministry of Melioration and Water Resources, Tajikistan

Highlights for Thursday, 28 February 2013

The Post-2015 Development Agenda Consultation on Water: Water Resources Management and Wastewater Management and Water Quality continued on 28 February 2013, at the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland. The meeting, sponsored by the Government of Switzerland, is part of the Thematic Consultation on Water, coordinated by UN-Water, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). The meeting focused on two of the three streams of discussion under the Thematic Consultation: Water Resources Management (WRM), facilitated by the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE); and Wastewater Management and Water Quality (WWMWQ), facilitated by UN-Habitat/AquaFed.

In the morning, participants split into six groups on: pollution, protection, water quality and ecosystems; resilience and climate change; transboundary cooperation; balancing uses and allocation; efficiency and reuse; and governance. These groups spent the morning discussing three questions: what should be the future objectives to address the key water-related issue in a post-2015 development agenda; what actions should be taken to achieve these objectives and can success be measured; and how are such objectives linked to other themes of the global thematic consultation? In the afternoon, rapporteurs reported on the results of the group discussions, followed by a question and answer session and general debate. The meeting concluded at 5:34 pm.

The IISD-RS Summary Report of the Post-2015 Development Agenda Consultation will be available at this site on 3 March 2013.