2015 UN-Water Zaragoza Conference

Water and Sustainable Development:

From Vision to Action

15-17th January 2015

Kick-Start of the (year long) dialogue on the theme

The Conference

This conference is part of the road map

for World Water Day 2015

This is also the last conference of the

International Water for Life Decade

The 7th annual UN-Water Zaragoza Conference

Organized by• UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy

and Communication (UNW-DPAC)• Aquafed• Cap-Net• CEO Water Mandate• CONAGUA (Mexico)• Economic Commission for Latin America and the

Caribbean (ECLAC)• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United

Nations (FAO)• Global Water Partnership (GWP)• Government of Holland, Spain and others• Itaipu Binacional• Organization for Economic Cooperation and

Development (OECD)• Secretariat of the Convention on Biological

Diversity (CBD)• United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

• United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)

• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)• United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

(UNECE)• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)• United Nations Industrial Development

Organization (UNIDO)• United Nations International Strategy for Disaster

Reduction (UNISDR)• United Nations University (UNU)• UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity

Development (UNW-DPC)• Universities of Zaragoza, Michigan, Middesex,

Osnabruck and Oxford• WASH Advocates• WaterAid• World Resources Institute• World Council of Civil Engineers• Women for Water Partnership (WfWP)• The World Bank (tbc)• World Health Organization (WHO)• World Youth Parliament for Water (WYPW)

The focus

•Practical examination of the necessary transformations for implementing the post 2015 international agenda on water, in relation to specific themes: WASH, Water Resources Management (scarcity focus), Water Quality, and Risks.

•How specific tools such as technology, capacity development, governance, financing – and economic instruments- can help develop appropriate joint responses, (including issues of scaling up and transitioning).

•The role of different actors and how they can contribute, specifically Business, Governments (including Local Governments), Civil Society, Academia, and Media.

•Appropriateness and transferability of different tools and approaches in different contexts/regions: pan-European and North America region, Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Tools

ActorsThemes

A 3D CONFERENCE focused on implementation tools

Participants• Max 150 - 300 participants

• United Nations Agencies and Programmes

• Practitioners

• Representatives of the business community

• Governmental and non-governmental organizations

• Civil Society

The type of eventThe UN-Water Zaragoza Conferences provide a

space for open dialogue.

Where the UN reaches out to stakeholders and practitioners

What dialogue?• A diverse dialogue: Provides a platform for exchange of

experiences: inter-disciplinary, inter-scale, between the academia, international organizations, NGOs, public and private sectors;

• A practical dialogue: It will draw from practical experience in the United Nations, Member States, stakeholder groups and practitioners. Analyzing and evaluating the existing use of tools and the main challenges for implementing them;

• A reflective dialogue: It will look at the essential similarities -learning from each other- and critical differences e.g. regional and country differences, stakeholder views differences;

• A useful dialogue: Draws conclusions on lessons learnt relevant to the international water agenda.

Expected outcomes• A compendium of references/guidance on

different tools for implementation illustrated by cases.

• A Conference report on lessons learnt from implementation.

• A series of documented case studies, video interviews, information briefs and other materials.

• Learning and knowledge exchange among Conference participants through interdisciplinary discussions.

Our participants have said!• We want more conferences like this.

• Timely, well selected FOCUS.

• We like the open and thorough discussions.

• The presence of practitioners make it lively, engaging and specially meaningful.

• It is of great value to kick start the year with such a thorough brief on the issue.

• Very well organised! Good timely reports.

• More time for conversations please..

• Too intense!

Welcome to Zaragoza

Register at www.un.org/waterforlifedecade