New York, September 2019 – The 2030 WRG Governing Council met in New York, during the World Economic Forum Sustainability Impact Summit, to discuss global water security trends and the impact and contribution of the work around the globe. Co-chairs Laura Tuck, Vice President for Sustainable Development, World Bank and Paul Bulcke, Chairman of the Board of Nestlé, led the council members through a vibrant discussion on global water resources management challenges and the 2030 WRG value-add to address these issues.

The meeting was also an opportunity for Governing Council members to be brought up to speed on recent developments and future priorities. They learned about the World Bank new Strategic Action Plan on Water, the new report Quality Unkown on water quality and the close alignment of the World Bank Water agenda with 2030 WRG objectives.

Bangladesh leadership

The GC heard firsthand from senior officials from the Government of Bangladesh how committed they are in providing leadership in the country Multi-Stakeholder Platform. There is great interest in finding cross-cutting effective long-term solutions to the water security issues in the country through the platform. As Bangladesh is taking a leading role in the Valuing Water Initiative, concretizing a methodology to calculate the shadow price for water, involving private sector champions, this could provide learnings for other country platforms.

Leadership areas

The Governing Council members agreed and were supportive of the suggestion to structure the work of 2030 WRG country MSPs into three thematic leadership areas: Transforming Value Chains, Promoting Circular Economies, and Advancing Resilience Planning. Common water resources management challenges were identified around these thematic areas in various sectors, including in agriculture, industrial and urban/municipal water management, and the strategic plan aims to deliver improved solutions and impacts around these themes.

Support was given to the secretariat to cautiously scope into more geographies. There was an emphasis on raising funds to ensure the continuation of core operations and to explore more deeply in existing engagements and find opportunities to explore city-based MSPs. It was also agreed that the secretariat will look at existing initiatives and platforms in country/states to not duplicate efforts, but rather maximize efficiencies.