Reflections on UN-Water Week: Mobilizing Finance for Water
As part of the 2023 UN Water Conference, the Resilient Water Accelerator (RWA) convened a meeting in New York to bring together ministers and senior government officials, water and industry experts, and senior representatives from the finance sector to discuss how to scale up investment and boost global water security in the face of climate change. The meeting was chaired by two RWA Steering Committee members; with Minister of State Lord Goldsmith representing the UK and WaterAid UK Chief Executive Tim Wainright. Both organizations have provided seed funding to RWA, along with the Dutch Government, Bank of America, and the Global Development Incubator (GDI).
Key Discussion Takeaways
Action on water is critical and urgent. Ecosystems, food & farming, and public health all rely on water supplies. All of these are already facing threats from overuse and pollution, and climate change is multiplying these threats at an alarming rate.
Climate change is a global problem but the impacts are local. We need to understand the geographic and political context to design solutions around what is already happening, who is investing, and what barriers there are to that investment. Increased data and knowledge is needed to help us get there.
Unlike climate change, the solutions to water insecurity are largely well known. We are not reliant on new technology or systems to secure water resources and deliver them where they are needed; the challenge is the slow pace of investment.
Mobilizing finance for water is doable. We need to bring the financing solutions with urgency, at scale, and through working together.
New partnerships and cross-sector collaboration are critical to bringing together expertise, political influence, and investment to mobilize solutions at scale.
Next Steps
The UN convened this generational conference to both shed light on the challenges posed by climate change and catalyze action towards solutions.
The conversations we had in New York made clear how vital it is to connect important conversations in the water sector with other areas of the economy that have an equally critical role to play in delivering water and climate resilience.
The mission underpinning RWA’s work through 2023 is to build a shared water story and cultivate collaboration beyond the water sector. This is the only way to achieve the ambition of bringing finance to the water sector at the speed and scale needed to avoid disaster and build a more equitable future.