UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank Group President Jim Kim have convened a High Level Panel on Water (HLPW) on which 10 Heads of State and Government, as well as two Special Advisors, will sit. They will provide the leadership to champion a comprehensive, inclusive and collaborative method of developing and managing water resources, and improving water and sanitation related services.
The Panel is co-chaired by the Presidents of Mauritius and Mexico, and it comprises eight additional Heads of State/Government, as well as two Special Advisors, who support the Panel with their insights and expertise.
What Does the UN Panel on Water Do?
The HLPW has two main objectives:
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To Motivate Effective Action: It is the mandate of the Panel to change the way that individuals globally thin about water; this will be done by the highlighting of institutions, policies, and programmes that could assist the world onto a more sustainable pathway, in an effort to motivate effective action across governments and civil society, as well as the private sector.
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To Advocate on Financing and Implementation: The Panel will promote the mobilisation of financial resources, scale-up investment; it will also encourage innovation and partnerships in an effort to influence the world to build more sustainable and resilient societies and economies and to improve water and sanitation related services. The Panel will note interlinkages with other SDGs and targets such as climate change, and gender and water.
In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), governments, societies, and the private sector will be forced to change the current methods regarding use and management of water, and it is to this end that the High Level Panel on Water was convened.
Limiting the scope of activities of the HLPW to few high-impact actions will ensure focus and drive; the Panel will therefore also engage with an open and growing ‘friends of the water panel‘ network that encourages a voice for all and seeks to learn from the knowledge that already exists.
The Panel will be supported by a Joint Secretariat comprising UN-DESA and the World Bank Group, as well as UN-Water, who will introduce the technical water expertise of the rest of the UN system through UN-Water.
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