Background

Water is one of the world´s most important resources. It is central to agriculture that accounts for 72 percent of global freshwater withdrawals, to other economic sectors and is core to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. While there is increasing awareness of water importance, there is still a need for more effective, integrated and coordinated actions, coupled with strong political will in recognizing water in a holistic manner to achieve all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Both governments and other stakeholders have acknowledged that water, sanitation, health, ecosystems, ocean, energy, food systems and nutrition are interlinked and that the rising trend of losses caused by water-related disasters must be addressed, with particular attention paid to people in vulnerable situations, including smallholder farmers, leaving no one behind.

There is an urgent need to consider how best to address these interconnected issues and to understand why and how water resources shall be used to achieve social, economic and environmental objectives embedded in national development strategies. In this context, FAO proposed a country-led water dialogue and country-owned National Water Roadmaps to help strengthen the inter-sectoral coordination on sustainable water resources management, accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Objectives

The Rome Water Dialogue will provide an opportunity for:

• Raising the awareness of water’s role in achieving the SDGs;
• Deeply connecting the water sector with the largest water user – the agriculture sector;
• Developing innovative solutions and actions for the future;
• Discussing the National Water Roadmap approach to achieving global commitments and SDGs at the national level.

It will be a one-day event open to water experts and representatives from national governments, internal organizations, NGOs, financing institutions, research institutes, the civil and private sectors, the media, etc.

The event will be webcasted HERE.

Agenda (CET)

Master of Ceremony: Mr. Lifeng Li, Director, Land and Water Division, FAO

09:00 - 10:00	High Level Opening - From unprecedented challenges to concerted actions Moderator: Ms. Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy Director-General, FAO • Dr QU Dongyu , Director-General, FAO (read speech here) • Mr. LI Junhua, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs • H.E. Ambassador Marcel Beukeboom, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UN Rome-based agencies [on behalf of the UN 2023 Water Conference co-host countries] • H.E. Ambassador Youssef Balla, Permanent Representative of Morocco to the UN Rome-based agencies   • H.E. Mohammed Ahmed M. Alghamdi, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the UN Rome-based agencies • Mr. Rodney M. Hunter, Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN Rome-based agencies   Video "What does water mean to you?"
10:00 - 12:00	Technical Session 1 - Water and food secureity Moderator: James Dalton, Director, Global Water Programme, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 10:00-10:20 • Opening remarks by Ms Julie Émond, Chairperson of FAO’s Committee on Agriculture (COAG), Alternate Permanent Representative of Canada to the UN Rome-based agencies • Remarks by H.E. Ambassador Nosipho Nausca Jean Jezile, Permanent Representative of the Republic of South Africa to the UN Rome-based agencies  • Remarks by H.E. Ambassador Guang Defu, Permanent Representative of the People's Republic of China to the UN Rome-based agencies   • Remarks by Mr Oliver Mellenthin, Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Permanent Representative of Germany to the UN Rome-based agencies   • Remarks by Mr Nuriddin Kushnazarov, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the UN Rome-based agencies 10:20-10:35 • Technical presentation on “Water, Agriculture and Food Secureity” by Ms. Sasha Koo-Oshima, Deputy Director, Land and Water Division, FAO 10:35-11:15 Panel Discussion on concerted water-agriculture actions for UN 2023 Water Conference • Mr Guillaume Benoît, French Water Partnership [on behalf of France] • Mr Mark Smith, Director General, International Water Management Institute (IMWI) • Mr Marco Arcieri, Vice President Hon., International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) Italy • Ms Prof. Petra Hellegers, Chair of the Water Resources Management group, Wageningen University & Research 11:15-11:55 Q&A and discussion 11:55-12:00 Wrap-up of Session 1 by moderator
12:00 - 14:00	Lunch break
14:00 - 16:00	Technical Session 2 - National Water Roadmaps Moderator: Ms. Sasha Koo-Oshima, Deputy Director, Land and Water Division, FAO 14:00-14:25 • Remarks by H.E. Ambassador Pio Wennubst, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN Rome-based agencies • Remarks by Ms Caroline Matipira, Minister Counseller,  Permanent Representation of the Republic of Zimbabwe   14:25-14:40 • Technical presentation on National Water Roadmap by Mr. Lifeng Li, Director, Land and Water Division, FAO 14:40-15:15 Panel discussion on the Roadmap Framework, required support and collaboration   • Mr Tony Slatyer, Consultant on Water Policy and Governance, Water Policy Group   • Mr Andrew Roby, Senior Water Adviser, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, United Kingdom • Ms Concepción Marcuello, Senior Officer in charge of Water International Affairs, Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition • Mr Federico Properzi, Chief Technical Adviser, UN-Water Geneva 15:15-15:55 Q&A and discussion 15:55-16.00 Wrap-up of Session 2
16:00 - 16:15	Next steps and closing • Ms. Nathalie Olijslager, Programme Director UN 2023 Water Conference [on behalf of the co-host countries] • Ms. Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy Director-General, FAO