The CEO Water Mandate team is gearing up for an exciting week at Stockholm World Water Week 2018. We look forward to sharing our insights and engaging in peer learning through both conference sessions within SWWW as well as our annual off-site event.
This year’s conference theme is “Water, Ecosystems and Human Development.” Accordingly, Mandate sessions and discussions will focus on nature-based solutions, the human right to water, sanitation, and hygiene, the Sustainable Development Goals on water (6) and climate (13), and the role of the private sector in advancing water stewardship to ensure a secure water future for the people and ecosystems that depend on it.
The Mandate is co-convening the following sessions held within the main conference:
Nature-Based Solutions for Better Climate Resilience: Business Practice and Solutions
Date and Time: Sunday, August 26, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Convening Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Danone, Forest Trends, and Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
Climate change has direct links to human health risks. Human well-being depends on how we manage and protect the natural systems around us. There is a need to manage risk and build resilience through well-managed ecosystems to reduce the impacts of climate change and human health risks.
The local context of water is pushing for integrated management of ecosystems where all the actors and communities identify nature-based solutions, such as market-based solutions for wetlands in carbon sequestration, and understanding its environmental and social impacts, including health impacts.
This session will convene businesses, governments, and civil society to discuss how innovative nature-based solutions can support and scale corporate action taking in account the local water context.
Safeguarding water-related ecosystems in the Mara River and Tonle Sap
Date and Time: Tuesday, August 28, 9:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Convening Partners: Winrock International, Tetra Tech, Stockholm Environment Institute, International Union for Conservation of Nature, World Resources Institute, and mWater
In the Mara River, SWP is working with Kenyan and Tanzanian stakeholders to improve water decision-making by providing science, tools and capacity building, including developing one of the first transboundary water allocation plans. In the Tonle Sap Basin, SWP is working with stakeholders in the Stung Chinit catchment to identify and prioritize key water security risks and implement measures that build resilience. In this Sofa Event, SWP staff and representatives of our key institutional partners, the Lake Victoria Basin Commission and Tonle Sap Authority, will describe the challenges and opportunities in the Mara River and Tonle Sap Basin, provide an overview of the approaches employed under the SWP Activities, and discuss accomplishments related to improving water security and meeting human development and ecosystem needs.
Water Stewardship Collaboration for the Textiles Sector
Date and Time: Wednesday, August 29th, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM
Convening Partners: World Wildlife Fund, GIZ, and HSBC
This session will examine the challenges and opportunities of current sector water stewardship activities and tools, and explore how the textiles sector can align to accelerate change through collective action in key water risk regions.
In particular, the discussions will focus on how to co-ordinate resources to drive improvements in impacts, development and water governance in priority regions, and whether the relevant brands and organizations can come together within a global collaboration for textiles water stewardship.
Speakers will discuss opportunities for an aligned approach on thought leadership, target setting, policy engagement, data and tools, and particularly how to align participation in (and financing of) on-ground water stewardship programs.
WASH4Work: Tools to Accelerate Business Action on WASH
Date and Time: Thursday, August 30, 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Convening Partners: all WASH4Work Partners (Alliance for Water Stewardship, Diageo, Gap Inc., Global Citizen, ILO, UN Foundation, Sanitation and Water for All, The Toilet Board Coalition, UNICEF, Unilever, WaterAid, WBCSD, WSSCC, WSUP)
This event will look at how to better enable businesses to work independently and jointly with others to ensure effective delivery of WASH provision. It will explore the key attributes for developing a business case for action on WASH, the current landscape of WASH in the standards systems businesses rely on for implementation, and the innovative practices businesses are undertaking. It will include the launch of a new guidance, ‘Strengthening the case for WASH’ delivered by WaterAid, Diageo, Unilever and Gap Inc.
The session will involve practical exercises and discussion to explore the interconnection of stewardship and WASH practices towards building a strong business case that enables positive WASH outcomes across the value chain.
Water Stewardship: Partnership and Financing Models for Scale
Date and Time: Thursday, August 30, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Convening Partners: 2030 World Resources Group, World Wildlife Fund, The World Bank Group, GIZ International Water Stewardship Program, Alliance for Water Stewardship, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Focused on sharing lessons and experiences of water stewardship, this event brings together several catalytic organizations and initiatives to discuss the power of partnerships in accelerating stewardship outcomes. With a shared vision on how water stewardship can contribute to water security, these initiatives are increasingly exploring mechanisms for collaborative and concerted action, with the aim of scaling up impacts.
The event, aligned with the overall World Water Week theme of water, ecosystems and human development, aims to:
- Present country-level examples of water stewardship
- Discuss how innovative financing models can drive sustainability of solutions
- Identify key factors for the effective design and delivery of programs, with a focus on scale
- Develop a joint action plan for further collaboration to enhance the impacts of stewardship initiatives
- Through a discussion on potential collaboration models within and across countries, the event aims to mobilize complementary initiatives to serve as aggregators of knowledge, networks, data, and action.
CEO Water Mandate Annual Multi-Stakeholder Meeting
As in past years, the CEO Water Mandate’s main annual convening will coincide with Stockholm World Water Week. This is an invite-only side event for Mandate endorsers and stakeholders that will take place offsite.
The day will consist of several facilitated dialogues that will bring together a variety of experts from the private sector, civil society, governments, UN agencies, and others to explore critical issues and that advance particular aspects of corporate water stewardship. Topics covered will include context-based water metrics, collective action and water governance, disclosure, and water stewardship and investors.
If you are interested in attending this meeting and have not already received an invitation, you can contact Mai-Lan Ha at mlha@pacinst.org (space is limited and we will offer additional invites on a case by case basis).