We need global action on Water Governance to Tackle the SDGs - starting this September.

Five hundred days have passed since the historic UN 2023 Water Conference. While both the progress on big promises and ambition shown at that conference have been slow, we are finally on the brink of a significant milestone: the imminent appointment of a UN Special Water Envoy by the UN Secretary-General. This appointment marks the beginning of a crucial reform in how the United Nations addresses water issues—a topic that has often been overlooked despite its fundamental importance.

The fragmented and insufficient approach to global water policy and governance worsens how current UN processes fail to fully recognize the pivotal role of water in achieving their objectives. Change is not just necessary but urgent. New system-wide reforms at the UN and beyond aim to shift this narrative, providing a coordinated and effective mechanism for a new approach to global water governance.

Not a day goes by without another news headline on an unprecedented water-related disaster somewhere in the world. Too much, too little and polluted waters batter our environments, economies and societies and climate change only makes this worse. Increasing water insecurity undermines our ability to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the many challenges they aim to address, water can, and should, be a key organising principle. Water underlies and links all the SDGs and if captured, understood, valued and governed in its full capacity, water is the best lever to help achieve these goals.

Naming a UN Special Water Envoy is just a first step to the global governance transformation the current crisis demands.

To better understand and address the interdependencies of water with everything else, and to use water as a lever for change, the way we make decisions on water has to move from siloed technical, local and national structures to a new – local to global – approach that reflects its global and universal significance.

 

Reinvent partnerships

We must reinvent water partnerships so that they are inclusive, transformative, and global.

Because water is literally connected to every challenge, everything we value and every goal we want to achieve, water also is connected to every rightsholder, duty-bearer and stakeholder. And this connective capacity underlines that only through inclusive and just partnerships we can stop failing practices and develop transformative programs and projects, at all scales and including all voices and sectors in society.

Multilateralism today is strained by a changing balance of economic power across the globe, and geopolitical rivalries. Yet without cooperation among nation states we will struggle to address global challenges. Pre-emptive action on water can prevent the higher costs associated with emergency responses, health crises, economic disruptions, and security risks. There are many building blocks in place.

Examples of good water governance and diplomacy exist at local, national, transboundary, and regional levels. These partnerships span many regions and other partnerships around the globe, and merit value if we position them in the context of the multilateral agreements on climate, biodiversity, finance and beyond. Reform of the UN approach to water, leadership from a new Special Water Envoy and a Youth envoy within the existing agreements helps anchor water – and its transformative capacity – while making best use of current UN processes. No need for more bureaucracy or fragmentation, but concerted water action maximising existing capacities and agreements. A converged agenda, led by the UN Water Envoy and anchored in the UN System will help catalyse action and attention on convergence.

 

A global water governance mechanism

The 2023 UN Water Conference laid an ambitious groundwork for global water governance, calling for the appointment of a UN Water Envoy and the launch of a UN System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation. And with the agreed upon follow up UN Conferences in 2026 and 2028 this will set the stage to anchor water issues across the UN system, agencies, and foster the needed leadership throughout the agreements on climate, biodiversity and sustainability.

At present, water features across multiple UN conventions and frameworks. It is also integrated into broader UN agreements and frameworks, and over 30 UN organisations carry out programs related to water and sanitation. UN agencies active on water are loosely coupled through UN Water, an inter-agency mechanism created in 2003. However, each agency contributes to UN Water on a voluntary basis and through its own distinctive mandate, and while UN Water aims to inform policy processes, support monitoring and reporting and help build knowledge and inspiring action, it is not able to reconcile these mandates around water.

The new global water governance approach must politically and institutionally unite local-to-global efforts with a mandated framework for coordinated action, scale up support knowledge sharing and best practice for water governance, and secure a multilateral convening mechanism and space. The need for this reform is apparent when we consider that water issues transcend local and national boundaries. Doing this while respecting national sovereignty and local contexts will be a significant challenge but is essential for addressing the full hydrological cycle. It would provide the necessary leadership and dedicated capacity needed for the implementation of a global water agenda.

The path forward

In October, the final report from the Global Commission on the Economics of Water hopes to reignite calls for unified action on water at the UN level.

By leveraging the UN's legitimacy and structure, a consolidated global water agenda must be pursued. The UN Special Envoy for Water will raise the visibility and urgency of this vital mission and lead its development and implementation.

A global water governance mechanism would ensure a comprehensive strategy for collective action on water. And inspire the world to agree to work under clear and measurable goals to stabilise the hydrological cycle, foster climate resilience, secure equitable access to water and sanitation, and develop and implement transformed food systems.

These bold steps towards unified global water governance are not merely an aspiration – they are an imperative. The time for fragmented approaches has passed; we must now embrace a cohesive, inclusive, global water strategy to secure our water future for all.