Throughout 2023, SIWI was deeply involved in global water and climate processes. As one of the founders of the Water for Climate Pavilion, SIWI coordinated the project and chaired the Steering Committee on the road to COP28. Ultimately, the ongoing movement united 63 partners – more than ever before. With the new intention of reaching outward in a unified way, the partners created a webpage with a joint knowledge hub and developed common messaging to speak with one voice for water across the conference. A group of SIWI experts was on site at COP, speaking on various occasions, and in a broad range of policy processes on topics such as cross-sectoral and nexus approaches, agroforestry, cities, oceans, and misinformation.

In the end, a united water community was heard far and wide at COP28 with 65 sessions in the Water for Climate Pavilion and upwards of 150 water-related events happening outside of it. The collective successfully leveraged its influence toward two key outcomes that included significant references to water: the Global Stocktake and the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA). Reflecting on the GGA outcome, which concluded eight years of efforts, SIWI’s Dani Gaillard-Picher highlighted: “Water is now recognized as being at the heart of the GGA and climate adaptation.”

Read more on the COP28 outcomes.