The 2022 UN Ocean Conference marked a turning point in connecting the water and ocean communities. SIWI’s S2S programme, which includes the Secretariat for the Action Platform for Source-to-Sea Management, has been a driving force behind this and has kept the momentum going. At the UN 2023 Water Conference, SIWI co-organized a side event with different UN water and oceans teams, the first such collaboration across the UN. Similarly, at COP28 SIWI and partners co-organized the first water and ocean cross pavilion event, further strengthening the exchange between the water and ocean communities.

Ruth Mathews, Senior Manager at SIWI, outlines: “With S2S we are breaking down silos. In 2023 we had a very fruitful workshop where representatives from river basins and regional seas came together to discuss new ideas on how to jointly tackle pressing issues.” This session motivated the inclusion of S2S in the ministerial declaration at the 23rd Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, which calls to “enhance interregional cooperation between the Mediterranean, the Danube, and the Black Sea, through a ‘Source to Sea’ approach.” Mathews explains: “It used to be just the S2S Platform and its partners advocating for S2S before others picked it up, but now the initiative is gaining traction in its own right.”

See S2S in action in the film Journey of Water, co-produced by SIWI and the World Wildlife Fund.