WRI Events at World Water Week 2021: Building Resilience Faster
World Water Week, the leading annual conference on global water issues, will be held virtually August 23-27 2021. Register for it here. The theme for World Water Week 2021 is Building Resilience Faster, focusing on the major transformations necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and curb carbon emissions. Water is closely linked to climate policy, poverty reduction, city planning, and more.
World Water Week is curated by SIWI, but convened by world-leading organizations that share their latest insights. All sessions will be available free of charge to registered participants; there is a Networking Pass available for purchase.
Monday, August 23
Making Cities Water-Positive through City Water Balance Plans City Water Balance
Planning can help cities become resilient, overcome water scarcity through demand management, increased water availability through recharge, reduce non-revenue water, sensitize citizens on prudent water use, and ensure institutional consensus. Case Studies from Hyderabad and Bengaluru, India, can be emulated across water-stressed cities in India and worldwide.
Event Time: 10:00-11:00 AM EDT
Partners: Safe Water Network, United States Agency for International Development, World Resources Institute
Navigating Uncertain Waters - shifting powers, sharing values (Session 1 of 3)
Step in: the politics of water and the choices we can make. Using the deliberative capacity of an election or conversational / dialogue process we will seek to remove the vail and explore the myths, realities, and multiple complexities of water and its competing interests.
Event Time: 1:00-2:00 PM EDT
Partners: Both ENDS, Government of South Africa, Government of the Netherlands, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, World Meteorological Organization, World Resources Institute
Tuesday, August 24
Navigating Uncertain Waters - shifting powers, sharing values (Session 2 of 3)
Step forward: making decisions that value water A simulation of a parliamentarian or congressional debate that explores how collaborative approaches can help reach a better, more sustainable, and more accepted decisions on water while not driving participants apart: decision making by water deliberation.
Event Time: 5:00-6:00 PM EDT
Partners: Both ENDS, Government of South Africa, Government of the Netherlands, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, World Meteorological Organization, World Resources Institute
Context-Based Water Stewardship in Practice, From Forest to Front Door
Conveners representing the chemicals, pulp manufacturing, and consumer goods sectors will discuss unique and shared water stewardship issues across the upstream and downstream supply chain of a paper towel roll. We will highlight approaches and challenges to context-based water stewardship in practice, within the context of building resilience in the face of climate change and increasing resource scarcity. World Resources Institute will serve as moderator and thought leader.
Event Time: 1:00 PM EDT (7:00-8:00 PM CET)
WRI Speaker(s): Colin Strong
WRI Contact(s): Colin Strong
Partners: International Paper, Kemira, Procter and Gamble Company, World Resources Institute
From Resilience Indicators to Action: The Water Resilience Assessment Framework
The collaborative Water Resilience Assessment Framework (WRAF) provides a holistic framework to diagnose, assess and measure water resilience through redefining shared and individual targets for a dynamic world.
Event Time: 1:00 PM EDT (7:00 PM CET)
WRI Speaker(s): TBD
WRI Contact(s): Colin Strong
Partners: Pacific Institute, CEO Water Mandate, Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, Water Research Institute, International Water Management Institute, Resolute Development Solutions; Climate Focus
Nature-based Solutions for Water Supply Utilities: Lessons in Project Preparation
This session will highlight the experiences in planning projects that incorporate nature-based solutions to enhance service delivery and increase resilience across the project cycle: from national planning processes to early discussions with water utility clients and project appraisal
Event Time: 10:00-11:00 PM CET
WRI Speaker(s): Suzanne Ozment (moderator)
WRI Contact(s): Suzanne Ozment, Emmie Oliver
Partners: World Bank, World Resources Institute
Managing the new normal: water resources and climate crisis
Climate change is impacting the Latin American Region in several ways, understanding the effects of these impacts in the availability of the water resources, and adopting the appropriate measures to face these challenges is extremely important to ensure the region's social and economic development.
Event Time: 10:00-11:00 PM CET
WRI Speaker(s): Emmie Oliver (panelist)
WRI Contact(s): Emmie Oliver, Suzanne Ozment
Partners: Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, Inter-American Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, National Water Commission, Mexico, Organization of American States, RTI International, The Nature Conservancy, World Resources Institute
Wednesday, August 25
Navigating Uncertain Waters - shifting powers, sharing values (Session 3 of 3)
Step up building resilient institutions through spaces for adaptive and participatory decision-making-Building resilient institutions for adaptive decision-making that consider climate change, the most vulnerable, places, economies, and ecosystems.
Event Time: 5:00-6:00 PM EDT
Partners: Both ENDS, Government of South Africa, Stockholm International Water Institute, World Meteorological Organization, World Resources Institute
Pathways to resilient, green growth for cities
Urbanisation brings challenges of infrastructure provision and increasing exposure to climate risks, but also the opportunity to leapfrog to resilient infrastructure. In this session, we explore case studies of Addis Ababa, Kigali and Shanghai using governance, spatial analysis and machine learning approaches to develop pathways for resilient, green growth.
Event Time: 9:00-10:00 PM EDT
WRI Speaker(s): Rogier van den Berg
Partners: Arup, Global Resilient Cities Network, Shanghai Urban Construction Design and Research Institute, The Resilience Shift, UNDP-SIWI Water Governance Facility, World Resources Institute
Thursday, August 26
Navigating Uncertain Waters - shifting powers, sharing values
“Water is life.” Despite this importance, increasing demands, pollution, and mismanagement are threatening the world’s water resources and impeding our capacity to respond to emerging challenges like climate change, extreme events and the recent pandemic.
Event Time: 7:00-8:00 AM EDT
Partners: Both ENDS, Government of South Africa, Stockholm International Water Institute, World Meteorological Organization, World Resources Institute
From forecast to prevention – acting on resource-related conflict risks
This event asks how national and international policy makers can take effective actions to prevent conflicts relating to water, food and energy insecurity. It focuses on how to prioritize water conflict prevention on the basis of conflict forecasting approaches, especially in times where governments are strained by multiple challenges.
Event Time: 11:00 AM -12:00 PM EDT
WRI Contact(s): Alberto Pallecchi, Charles Iceland
Partners: Deltares, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale, Zusammenarbeit GmbH, Government of the Netherlands, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, The Hague Center for Strategic Studies, World Resources Institute
From Resilience Indicators to Action: The Water Resilience Assessment Framework
Climate shocks and stressors have shown that traditional sustainability metrics like efficiency and accessibility are insufficient. Can we define resilience targets and pathways for businesses, utilities, and farmers for an unknown future? The session presents an innovative framework to assess water system resilience for creating shared understanding and collective action.
Event Time: 7:00-8:00 PM EDT
WRI Speaker(s): TBD
WRI Contact(s): Colin Strong
Partners: Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, International Water Management Institute, Pacific Institute, The CEO Water Mandate, World Resources Institute
Using Science-Based Targets for Water to Guide Corporate Action
The Science-Based Targets Network (SBTN) enables companies to become sustainable organizations that will thrive within Earth's limit on a socially equitable basis. Key learnings from piloting the science based targets (SBTs) for water methodology will be shared via an audience inclusive facilitated interview with at least one company currently pilot testing it. Join us to learn more about the future of corporate water target setting!
Event Time: 10:30-10:55 PM EDT
WRI Speaker(s): TBD
WRI Contact(s): Sara Walker
Partners: CDP Worldwide, General Mills, Pacific Institute, Procter and Gamble Company, The Nature Conservancy, World Resources Institute, World Wide Fund for Nature
Friday, August 27
Healthy forests, healthy people: managing the forest/water nexus
Integrated forest-water management is a nature-based solution to support and provide ecosystem services critical for life on Earth. Forests are intrinsically linked to water - forested watersheds provide 75 percent of our accessible freshwater resources and are crucial for many ingredients of resilient urban an rural societies such as biodiversity, clean water, nutritious food, air cooling, spiritual and cultural values . More attention is needed to the forest-water nexus, and on how to manage forest for water to better contribute to Climate Change mitigation and adaptation and Agenda 2030. You are invited to participate in this event, to discuss conclusions and recommendations from a webinar series held by the Forest-Water Champions in the run up to World Water Week. Key messages from this session will be documented and considered in the Forest-Water Champions contributions to the international policy development and dialogue, such as the CBD COP15, UNFCCC COP26 and beyond.
Event Time: 10:00-11:00 AM EDT
Partners: Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, Center for International Forestry Research, CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Forest and Water Champions, Forest Trends, Global Resilience Partnership, International Union for Conservation of Nature, International Union for Forest Research Organization, Stockholm International Water Institute, UN Environment Programme, World Resources Institute
Using Science-Based Targets for Water to Guide Corporate Action
The Science-Based Targets Network (SBTN) enables companies to become sustainable organizations that will thrive within Earth's limit on a socially equitable basis. Key learnings from piloting the science based targets (SBTs) for water methodology will be shared via an audience inclusive facilitated interview with at least one company currently pilot...
Event Time: 11:30-11:55 AM EDT
WRI Speaker(s): TBD
WRI Contact(s): Sara Walker
Partners: CDP Worldwide, General Mills, Pacific Institute, Procter and Gamble Company, Suntory, The Nature Conservancy, World Resources Institute, World Wide Fund for Nature
