Mexico City, September 19 2017 – The Water Advisory Council (Consejo Consultivo del Agua) with the support of 2030 WRG convened a multi-stakeholder working group to endorse the launching of a Green Infrastructure Solutions in the Mexican Water Sector Initiative.  The main objective of this initiative is to establish a multi-stakeholder dialogue platform to develop a common vision on how to strengthen the integration of water resources management and environmental policy; to evaluate the challenges and opportunities faced by green infrastructure solutions -as a mechanism to bridge the objectives of both policy sectors-; to establish synergies and enable collective action; to enable the implementation of green infrastructure solution projects and to contribute to policy reform. 

Some of the members of this working group include: Conservation International (CI), Deutsche Gesellshaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the Geographic and Geomatic Research Centre of the UNAM, the Geology Institute of the UNAM, The Mexico City Water Fund, the Mexican Institute of Water Technology (IMTA), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), The World Resources Institute (WRI), the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF), and the 100 Resilient Cities Initiative (Mexico City).  It is expected for other private sector stakeholders to join the Initiative. Mr Eugenio Barrios, President of the Water and Environment Committee of the Water Advisory Council and Director for Policy and Development of WWF, heads the activities of the working group.

There are several activities foreseen to be undertaken in the context of the initiative, including the identification and socialization of best-practices -with focus on innovative institutional designs and financial mechanisms-; some institutional and policy analysis to assess the path for greater water and environmental policy integration and understand the viability of green infrastructure solutions in the Mexican water sector; the development of business cases and feasibility studies of prospective projects; and the production of a road map to mainstream green infrastructure solutions in the water sector.