40th UN Water Meeting Held in New York:

Background
The 40th UN-Water Meeting was held at UN Headquarters in New York, from 4-5 November 2024. UN-Water is the coordination body which brings together more than 30 United Nations entities which implement water and sanitation related programmes with the intention to 'deliver as one'  in response to water and sanitation related challenges.

The 40th meeting was significant for a number of reasons: firstly, it was the first meeting at which the UN Secretary General’s newly appointed Special Envoy on Water, Ms Retno Marsudi, attended, as she assumed her duties on the 1st of November. The appointment of the Special Envoy has been highly anticipated and is seen as providing the sector with an ambassador who can serve as a champion and high-level advocate on water and sanitation issues.

Ms Marsudi was formerly the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, a role which she performed from 2014 until October 2024. In her role as Minister of Foreign Affairs, she presided over Indonesia’s role as host country of the 10th World Water Forum which took place in Bali in May this year, leading to consensus on the resulting Ministerial Declaration.

In her role as Special Envoy on Water, she is expected to work to strengthen partnerships and collective work to advance the global water agenda, including following up on the outcomes of the UN 2023 Water Conference. She is expected to draw on these outcomes, especially in the lead up to various global water processes, and in particular the 2026 UN Water Conference which will take place from 2 to 4 December 2026 in the United Arab Emirates. 

She is also tasked with enhancing the synergy between international processes to support international water targets, including Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) from the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In doing so, she will work with UN-Water to support the implementation of the UN System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation. 

A second reason for the importance of the 40th UN Water meeting was that it was the first time that UN entities met on water after the launch of the UN System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation in July this year.  The Strategy is intended to provide a comprehensive approach for United Nations entities with a water-related mandate to work collaboratively and holistically to address the interrelated cross-sectoral aspects of water and sanitation. One agenda point for the 40th meeting was the development of the Strategy’s collaborative implementation plan. At the meeting, participants attended breakout sessions to discuss priority actions within this implementation plan.

Thirdly, the UN-Water meeting took place immediately after the 16th Conference of Parties (COP 16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity and immediately before the 29th Conference of Parties (COP 29) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Water is increasingly featuring as a topic in the context of these Conventions. Events and discussions were held at COP 16 on the incorporation of water into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, and similarly, at COP 29 discussions were held on the increasing incorporation of water into Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans.  

To delve deeper into the events at the 40th UN Water Meeting, The Water Diplomat caught up with Federico Properzi, UN-Water Chief Technical Adviser to ask the following questions: 

The Water Diplomat: This was the first UN-Water Meeting at which the new Special Envoy on Water, Ms Marsudi, was present. To what extent has it been clarified yet how the communication and collaboration between herself and UN-Water will proceed as she strives to follow up on both the outcomes of the UN 2023 Water Conference and the mechanisms to accelerate the implementation of SDG 6? 

Federico Properzi: The UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Water was very clear about her role as a political advocate for water. Having been the Indonesian Foreign Minister for 10 years, she of course is in a position that allows her to reach out at the highest political level - and she is already doing so. She is very communicative and active on social media such as on Instagram, where she posted on World Toilet Day. She is a unifying figure, not only talking to Member States but also talking to civil society and the private sector.  

As part of that, she is also supporting the UN system-wide coordination on water as well as the delivery of the System-wide Strategy. She is a high-level advocate and is helping to get the messages out, while at UN-Water we are working more on the operational side of things. 

The Secretary General has asked the United Nations Department for Economic Social Affairs (UN-DESA) to provide the main support for the Special Envoy. So, in the coming period one could expect the necessary staff positions to be filled. She will still be posted in Jakarta, so there will be colleagues in New York on the one hand, but also possibly colleagues in Jakarta. 

At UN-Water, we will be working as one team to support her. For example, every time she speaks she will need the latest data and messages, and depending on the topic it will be different agencies providing support, but providing that support as a team. We are building this support structure around her so that she can be our ambassador. We care for her, and we provide the technical support from the whole UN system. That is how it was designed from the beginning. In these first months she is in ‘listening mode’. The UN-Water meeting was her first public appearance as UNSG Special Envoy, which allowed her to connect with many of the relevant actors, who were all in the room. So that was a very good start for her and for us.  

The Water Diplomat: This was also the first meeting of UN-Water since the launch of the UN System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation. During the meeting, some preliminary thoughts were shared on a collaborative implementation plan for the Strategy. To what extent is there already a draft implementation plan, and when could one reasonably expect this process to be completed?     

Federico Properzi: It is a process that has been long in the making, and it is still ongoing. At the previous UN-Water meeting in Rome in March, we started developing the implementation plan for the Strategy, but of course it is happening in different steps. The first step was to draft an annotated outline of the implementation plan, which was completed by July. The Strategy itself was launched on the 16th of July at the High-Level Political Forum. 

On the same day, we had the UN-Water Principals’ Meeting, where the heads of many agencies discussed the outline of the implementation plan, and we needed that in order to get the go-ahead or green light. Then between July and now, we engaged with our Members and Partners individually and collectively through a series of online meetings to discuss and to structure the implementation plan. 

Now, it has been decided that the implementation plan will have two types of actions: the Priority Collaborative Actions, and the Contributing Actions. The former are actions which can only be achieved at UN system-wide level: they can only be achieved in ‘together mode’. They have also been selected with the idea that if we have limited resources, what are the things that we really should do, forgetting about everything else. Of course, a lot of discussions and dialogues took place in order to define these priorities. 

Ultimately, by coincidence, we ended up having six Priority Collaborative Actions for SDG 6: this was not by design, it just happened to be the case. At the UN-Water meeting, the Senior Programme Managers approved the Priority Collaborative Actions, their success criteria, the means of verification and who will be responsible for delivering – that is, the results framework. We will be announcing these publicly and they will be part of the full implementation plan, which we currently plan to present in July 2025 at the High-Level Political Forum. 

Between now and the next UN-Water meeting, we will be developing the activity plans and budgets for each Priority Collaborative Action, working towards approval at the meeting in April in Rome. Of course, we are also writing the narrative part of the implementation plan. This will also include what we call the Contributing Actions: these are actions which are implemented by UN agencies and partners in accordance with their own mandates, but which do not necessarily need system-wide coordination. In terms of the accountability of the Contributing Actions, each agency is accountable to its governing body, whereas for the Priority Collaborative Actions it is UN-Water as a whole which is accountable. 

The process of collecting the Contributing Actions is still ongoing: before the UN Water meeting, we already had about 100, but it's still ongoing, so this will replace what we already have online, which is referred to as the UN-Water Inventory. This will be integrated into the Strategy as a part of the results framework. This is a document which needs updates at regular intervals – it is a living document. 

The Water Diplomat: Can we say that – in terms of delivering as one - these six Priority Actions can be seen as a bit of a flagship of delivering as one? 

Federico Properzi: Yes, absolutely they are, and it is important to note that the implementation plan – the first one – stretches over a period of four years. This means that we are talking about the implementation of these actions in the period between 2025 and 2028. And of course, as we get closer to 2028, we will think about the next four years, and the priority actions that are specific to that context. This will take us beyond 2030, knowing that many of the upcoming discussions will lead to negotiations on a possible post-2030 framework. 

The Water Diplomat: At the UN-Water meeting, ideas were shared at the meeting for the upcoming 2026 UN Water Conference hosted by Senegal and the United Arab Emirates, as well as for the next Water Conference in 2028, presumably based on the UN resolution in the modalities for both conferences. What are the next steps in this process and how best can stakeholders engage to work together towards the successful planning and execution of these conferences?

Federico Properzi:  Right now, there is a lot of momentum for water and sanitation overall at the global political level, and in this sense it is great to have the conferences in 2026 and 2028, which will help to boost the profile of the sector. It is also very important because it is the right moment to position water and sanitation in a possible post-2030 framework, because we certainly cannot predict at this stage what is going to happen afterwards.

The Water Diplomat: Just to comment on that, the 2023 Water Conference was almost historic in that it was the first such conference in 46 years – so now to have this luxury of UN-Water Conferences almost biannually is a luxury, and alongside that the appointment of the Special Envoy and adoption of the System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation… 

Federico Properzi:  Absolutely. And especially, it testifies to the willingness of the United Nations, meaning the Member States, to finally reclaim this political space in the global arena which had been left aside for about 2-3 decades. And now they want it back, because they need it. And so it is a great moment, as you say. 
Now having said that, I also think that we have to make something good out of this conference, because the importance of 2023 was that we were finally having a conference again. But now, we really must have a vision for 2026. And I think that Senegal and the United Arab Emirates are working on that and have the vision to use the Conference in a very political way. So, this is something that we can all support, but there will also obviously need to be a strategic link with the 2028 Conference because 2028 will also be the conference towards the end of the 2030 period and there will be questions on what to do next.  So, these conferences and the next four years will be extremely important to shape the next 15 or maybe 20 years.

The Water Diplomat:  Exactly, but to what extent is that road map clear already? Let's say for 2026 Conference? 

Federico Properzi:  The road map is clear to the extent that there are clear milestones towards December 2026. So, there will be an organisational session in New York in in 2025 - probably at the beginning of 2025 - which is preparatory to a later session, which will be convened by the President of the General Assembly – of course, again in New York. So, there will be these two major events in New York, and the main objective will be to decide on the themes of the six interactive dialogue (this time, we have six instead of five). 

The good thing is that we will know the topics in advance - I would say six months earlier in comparison with the last time [i.e, 2023]. So, there will be almost one year, and this leaves time for the co-hosts to work together, first of all, to select, as soon as possible, the co-chairs of the dialogues. 

So, we will have two co-hosts and twelve co-chairs that can really shape the political vision for the future, and this is a good critical mass of countries which can influence what is coming. You know, last time was limited: the themes were decided at the end of October 2022. And then of course it takes time to select the co-chairs, and in the end the co-chairs had not even two months before the conference to really engage politically.

Another good thing about the 2026 conference is that the outcome of the conference will be the summary of proceedings by the Presidents of the Conference, so that that means Senegal and UAE, and not by the President of the General Assembly, like last time. So, this is good in my view because it really means that the Member States really want ownership. And so the two co-hosts will take into consideration what the other Member States think, especially the opinion of the co-chairs. 

So, you can see that it was designed to make a real impact, and in this process there will also be a high-level international meeting in Dakar in 2025 - which means possibly at the end of 2025. Then, at the High-Level Political Forum in July 2026 there will be the in-depth review of progress in SDG6, which will possibly be the last one in the 2030 Agenda. This in-depth review is very well placed before the conference in December 2026. Finally, as UN-Water, we will publish - as we usually do - the SDG 6 Synthesis Report before the in-depth review. This will provide the latest data, but also our policy recommendations moving forward.

The Water Diplomat:  Federico many thanks for this very useful update, it is certainly very useful for readers and other stakeholders to remain informed of the global water agenda as it moves forward! 

Federico Properzi: My pleasure