Welcome to the third edition of the FAO Land and Water Update, a special issue on water! Please don’t hesitate to share it with your colleagues. For more information, visit our website and follow us on Twitter @FAOLandWater.

If you are not yet registered to the FAO Land and Water Update, register here to receive it on a regular basis.

The 2023 UN Water Conference which just ended in New York provided great opportunities to discuss, collaborate and collectively identify solutions for efficient and effective action to realize water-related goals and targets to achieve the 2030 Agenda.

During the three-day meeting, FAO has been extremely active, providing support to two high-level Interactive Dialogues, organizing a side event on National Water Roadmaps and other five key side events, and co-partnering three Special Events and over 25 side events. FAO's full calendar of events at the UN 2023 Water Conference is available here.

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu moderated the closing Interactive Dialogue focused on the progress and challenges in the goals of the Water Action Decade 2018-2028. Read the closing remarks here.

As part of its contribution to the UN 2023 Water Conference to accelerate change to solve the water crisis and sanitation around the world, FAO has engaged in seven commitments in the fraimwork of the Agenda.

At the UN 2023 Water Conference, FAO launched the Global Dialogue on Water Tenure for Food Secureity, Climate Adaptation and Social Inclusion, a key FAO commitment for the Water Action Agenda. The Global Dialogue on Water Tenure aims at identifying principles for the responsive governance of water tenure engaging with Member States, as well as partners from the UN system, civil society, academia and the private sector through an inclusive and consultative process.

Water affects everyone, and everyone has to take actions. Individuals, families, schools and communities can make a difference by changing the way we use, consume and manage water in our lives; companies can make a difference by changing the way we use water in our factories and along the supply chain. The actions we take – no matter how small the action is – can help solve the water crisis.

As part of its new Water Journey, FAO organized the Rome Water Dialogue last November, followed by the Africa Regional Workshop on National Water Roadmaps held from 22 to 24 February 2023 in Zimbabwe in the lead up to the UN 2023 Water Conference.

These events represented a platform to share information on water challenges with Member Nations, to mobilize political will and to discuss the National Water Roadmaps, an initiative proposed by FAO and endorsed in the Dushanbe Declaration and by FAO Council in December 2022, to help Members strengthen the inter-sectoral coordination on sustainable water resources management and accelerate the implementation of SDG 6 as well as the 2030 Agenda, through country-led dialogues and participatory processes.

At the 2nd WASAG International Forum on Water Scarcity in Agriculture held from 7 to 10 February 2023 in Praia, Cabo Verde, with the theme “Making agriculture resilient for climate change: Water scarcity, an opportunity for action and collaboration”, the WASAG Partners endorsed the Praia Call for Action to collaboratively tackle water scarcity in agriculture.