High-level Political Forum Side Event // Sustainable Use of Waters – Precondition for a World without Hunger
“Sustainable Use of Waters – Precondition for a World without Hunger” is the title of a side event during the High-Level Political Forum of the United Nations organized by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ) and the Social Service Agency of the Protestant Church in Germany (Bread for the World Germany). It takes place at the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations on Monday 16th of July. The event discusses political and inter-sectoral approaches necessary for establishing progress towards achieving SDG 6.4. Water use and scarcity in line with ecosystem needs and human rights.
Water is a key resource both to provide drinking water and to generate food and energy for a growing world population. A fifth of the global population lives in regions affected by water stress - where more water is used than can naturally be recharged. Already today, water stress exacerbates competition for water amongst user groups and threatens livelihoods and the rights to water and food of subsistence farmers and smallholder farmers worldwide. In light of this, the 2018 World Water Development Report calls for increased resource use efficiency and reduced external footprints of industrial agriculture to ensure long-term sustainability and the multitude of benefits that water provides: food and energy security, human health and sustainable socio-economic development.
The High-level Political Forum
The High-level Political Forum (HLPF), United Nations central platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda, is a yearly meeting under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council. The Forum reviews the progress towards the SDG’s and discusses new sustainable development challenges as well as recommendations. The topic of this year’s forum is "Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies", which puts, among others, a special focus on SDG 6.
Political and Intersectoral Approaches for water and food security
Based on the SDG 6 Monitoring Report, presented by Mr. Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD and Chair of UN-Water, the High-level panelists (Dr. Inga Winkler, Columbia University, Dinesh Suna, Coordinator, Ecumenical Water Networks and Stineke Oenema, UNSCN Coordinator) discuss:
- potential cooperation frameworks for water usage and scarcity regulations,
- how UN member states can confront water stress and achieve sustainable use of water in line with ecosystem needs and human rights, and
- the reduction of international water footprints in industrial agriculture.
The side event is supposed to pave the way forward for necessary, cross-sectoral actions for managing Water Resources sustainably, in line with ecosystem needs and human rights to food and water.For further information, please visit the website of the Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform.