"Taking Stock of the International Year of Water Cooperation and Advancing the Global Water Agenda Post-2015", New York

A special roundtable will be organized around the theme of water-related disasters. UN-Water decided that World Water Day in 2013 would be also dedicated to the same theme. A series of High-Level Events were organised to raise awareness on the potential and challenges for water cooperation, facilitate dialogue among actors, and promote innovative solutions for nurturing water cooperation, among them the High-Level Interactive Dialogue of the 67thSession of the UNGAand the official World Water Day Event hosted in The Hague on 22 March 2013 and the High-Level International Conference held in Tajikistan in August 2013. In addition, a number of open and inclusive consultations were also organized during that year, including the "Post-2015 Global Thematic Consultation on Water". All stakeholders from around the world were encouraged to take stock of the lessons learned from the implementation of the MDGs and to indicate the key global water-related challenges to inform the post-2015 development framework. Participants suggested that the future water agenda should seek to achieve the MDGs and other existing commitments but also to build on and go beyond them. Last year the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation organized a high level thematic debate on water and disasters to highlight the importance of this emerging issue. Most recently, the UN Secretary-General has appointed of Mr. Han Seung-soo of the Republic of Korea as his Special Envoy for Disaster Risk Reduction and Water. As we come to an end of the International Decade for Action "Water for Life", 2005-2015, this special event aims to take stock of the achievements and lessons learned from the International Year of Water Cooperation, 2013 and to discuss how to carry the global water agenda forward. A special roundtable will be organized around the theme of water-related disasters. For further information, please contact: Mr. BilolBobojon, Attaché, Permanent Mission of Tajikistan to the UN, Email: {tajikistan@un.int}; {bilol.bobojon@yahoo.com}; phone: +1 212 207 3315.

Programme

9:30 — 10:00 Opening Session moderated by the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Tajikistan to the United Nations, Mr. Mahmadamin Mahmadaminov Speeches by - H.E. Mr. Sirodjidin Aslov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan - Representative of Japan (tbd) - H.E. Mr. John W. Ashe, President of the 68th session of the General Assembly (tbc) - H.E. Ms. Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UNESCO - Mr. Nikhil Seth, Director, Division for Sustainable Development, UNDESA 10:00 - 11:30 Roundtable 1- "The International Year of Water Cooperation and Beyond" Moderator: Mr. Jerome Deli Priscoli, Senior Advisor of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Institute for Water Resources Panelists: - Mr. Siegfried Demuth, Chief, Hydrological Systems & Global Change Section, Division of Water Sciences, Natural Sciences Sector, UNESCO - Ms. Josefina Maestu, Coordinator of the UN-Water Decade Programme of Advocacy and Communication Office - Mr. Benedito Braga, President of the World Water Council (tbc) - Mr. Sulton Rahimov, First Deputy Minister of Energy and Water Resources of Tajikistan - Mr. Olivier Zehnder, Deputy Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN - Q&A 11:30 - 12:45 Roundtable 2 - "Sharing lessons and experiences on water and disasters" Moderator: Mr. Kenzo Hiroki, Principal, ICHARM and Member of Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation Panelists: - Mr. William Cosgrove, former Vice President of the World Bank, former President of the World Water Council - Prof. Kuniyoshi Takeuchi, Director, International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (UNESCO-ICHARM) - Mr. Jerome Deli Priscoli, Senior Advisor of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Institute for Water Resources - Mr. Koos Wieriks, Advisor to High Level Panel on Water and Disasters, Board Member of the UNSGAB - Mr. Kezrul Bin Abudulah, Chair, Network of Asian River Basin Organizations (NARBO) - Q&A 12:50 - 13:00 - Concluding remarks by the moderators of the roundtables