Ninth meeting of the Roundtable on Financing Water
- Discussion Highlights
- Agenda
- The Roundtable on Financing Water
- Global Commission on the Economics of Water
The UN 2023 Water Conference is a unique opportunity to set a transformative agenda for water finance, in line with the sustainable development agenda and related global commitments (in particular on climate, biodiversity, or disaster risk reduction). As the world comes together to focus on solving the water and sanitation crises, financing water will be essential for translating the political ambition of the Conference into action on the ground in its follow-up. The outcome of the Conference will be the Water Action Agenda, which will include transformative commitments from across sectors and actors.
In this context, the ninth meeting of the Roundtable on Financing Water – co-convened by the OECD and UN-Water – was a stepping-stone towards the UN 2023 Water Conference and helped define the role of financing for the Water Action Agenda. It brought together the finance and water communities to share information on recent and future developments of common interest.
The Roundtable meeting was also the first societal dialogue of the Global Commission on the Economics of water. The Global Commission ambitions to anchor equity in water economics and define the hydrological cycle as a global common good.
Objectives
Sessions of the Roundtable meeting focused on:
- The hydrological cycle as a global common good. What does this mean for finance?
- How to define development, in relation to the planetary boundary on freshwater
- Equity in financing water: Enhancing access to finance for water
- Changing finance for water: the role of development finance
- Changing finance for water: driving the behaviour of corporates and financiers
- Towards a transformative agenda on financing water
Video Recordings
| Day 1 |
Day 2 |
Day 3 |
Background Documents
- Framework for assessing the enabling conditions to finance water security
- The reform of the international financial architecture: an opportunity for scaling up finance for water?
- A new frontier: the financial materiality of water risks
- Addressing the social consequences of tariffs for water supply and sanitation
- Financing a water secure future
- Finance Water Action Pathway – Introduction and First Draft, CDP
Presentations
DAY 1
Session 1. The hydrological cycle as a global common good. What does this mean for finance?
Session 2. How to define development, in relation to the planetary boundary on freshwater
- Vijay Kumar, Government advisor for the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming Movement
- Amgad Elmahdi, Water Sector Senior Specialist, Green Climate Fund
- Rachael McDonnell, Deputy Director General - Research for Development at International Water Management Institute
DAY 2
Session 3 – Equity in financing water: Enhancing access to finance for water
- Sinegugu Zukulu, leader of the people of Amadiba in the Eastern Cape of South Africa
- Rukan Manaz, Programme Specialist, UNCDF
- Guy Hutton, Senior Economist and Financing Specialist Working in WASH
Keynote
- Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the WTO, co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of water
- Mariana Mazzucato, founding director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of water
Session 4 – Changing finance for water: the role of development finance
DAY 3
Session 5 – Changing finance for water: driving the behaviour of corporates and financiers