Water Adaptation Community Webinar: On the Frontlines of the Climate Emergency: Large Ocean States/Small Islands

This webinar brings together leaders, water governance practitioners, and expert researchers from Large Ocean States/Small Islands to share knowledge and good practices for governance, policy development, and locally led resilience and adaptation

Event description:

In 2023, the Water Adaptation Community (WAC) will increase its focus on Large Ocean States (LOS) (also called Small Islands Developing States) to support learning at the frontlines of the climate emergency. LOS/Small Islands include some of the world’s smallest and most remote states in the world and are as such extremely exposed and vulnerable to climate change and development shocks: high exposure to natural disasters, climate change, and global economic shocks, as well as small or unstable domestic revenues and limited borrowing opportunities. Sharing of lessons learned about needs and opportunities is needed to accelerate adaptation and address similar water challenges among scattered islands short on capacity.

The WAC focuses on a bottom-up approach, aiming to listen to the community to understand demand-driven issues and build on existing initiatives. The WAC also brings policy insights from interactions with the community and shares them with global policymakers at high-level decision-making events, including the 2023 UN Water Conference. At the same time, the WAC supports collaboration to scale up and jointly overcome implementation challenges with the help of an international community. An important way the WAC does this is through the International Panel on Deltas and Coastal Zones (IPDC).

The IPDC is an upcoming initiative that responds to the urgent and critical need for special leadership to accelerate sustainable development and adaptation in deltas, coastal zones and LOS/Small Islands. To inform the IPDC approach going forward about key issues that LOS/Small Islands face, the WAC has designed a webinar to share knowledge and good practices for governance, policy development, and locally led resilience and adaptation, with the aim of helping LOS/Small Islands address their knowledge gaps and increase widespread applications of good practices. The WAC has invited LOS/Small Islands leaders, water governance practitioners, food and island tourism industry innovators, and expert researchers to talk about their key challenges and solutions.

Key Questions

• What are the key climate impacts that need support from an initiative like the IPDC and the WAC?
• What approach should IPDC have to best tap into the existing knowledge, initiatives and processes already ongoing in the Pacific LOS/Small Islands?
• What are the knowledge and capacity gaps and how should they best be developed with the help of IDPC and the WAC?

Program

17.00: Introduce GCA & WAC & Agenda 

• Chair: Dr. Nidhi Nagabhatla, Senior Research Fellow and Cluster Coordinator: Climate Change and Natural Resources program, United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies

17.08–17.15: 6th Ministerial Meeting of Water Ministers - Pacific Water and Wastewater Association (PWWA) – Summary & Outcomes in water adaptation context

• Dr. Amit Chanan, Water Authority of Fiji 

17.15–17.25: Overview of the core climate issues, and water-related challenges faced by Pacific Small Island Developing States

• Dr. Nidhi Nagabhatla, Senior Research Fellow and Cluster Coordinator: Climate Change and Natural Resources program, United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies

17.25–17.35: Pacific region: Mainstreaming water into NDCs – solutions, gaps and opportunities in water adaptation 

• Mr. Amit Singh, Project Development Specialist, Regional Pacific NDC Hub/Pacific Community

17.35–17.45: Maldives’ national strategy and action plan to manage interventions in the exclusive economic zone

• Ms. Muhsina Abdul Rahman, Maldives Ministry of Environment 

17.45–17.55: Water Adaptation Examples of Blue Economy in small islands

• Mr. Paul Holthus, World Ocean Council 

17.55–18.05: Pathway to UN Water 2023:  Future coalition and capacity building through the International Panel for Deltas and Coastal Regions (IPDC)

• Mr. Martien Beek, The Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management or Mr. Harm Duel, Deltares (TBC)

18.05–18.35: Q&A and Discussion

18.35–18:45: Closing remarks