UN 2023 WATER CONFERENCE Side event: Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG): Implementing the 2023 Praia Declaration through the Decade’s work streams

UN 2023 WATER CONFERENCE 

Side event:

Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG): 

Implementing the 2023 Praia Declaration through the Decade’s work streams

Opening Remarks

By

Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General 

22 March 2023

 

 

His Excellency the Minister of Agriculture and Environment of Cabo Verde, 

Excellences,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to today’s side event and a warm welcome to Cabo Verde that last month hosted the Second International Forum of the Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG) in Praia.

 

I wish to thank all partners for their continued commitment to WASAG, and I invite all Members to join this powerful partnership.

We are here at the UN 2023 Water Conference to go forward with the Praia Call for Action. This Call comes at a time of water crisis, with water scarcity affecting 2.3 billion people worldwide, and with significant impact on agriculture, which accounts for 72% of human freshwater withdrawals.

Climate change further affects the situation by disrupting the water cycle. We need solutions to reduce water use and adapt to climate change.

In Praia, we collectively decided to take bold action! We committed to more collaborative and strategic actions within and among countries, including policies and investments, and with the contribution of all stakeholders.

We agreed to develop climate-sensitive and water-productive interventions for dryland agriculture, with special attention to the needs of women, youth and the elderly. We agreed to empower farmers with solutions, data and technology.

We agreed to act proactively on drought through early warning, assessing impacts and building resilience, and we resolved to develop innovative financing mechanisms and facilitate farmers’ access to climate finance.

FAO is fully committed to achieving these objectives, and is already responding to deliver on these commitments.

The FAO initiative to Address Water Scarcity in Agriculture and the Environment is scaling up action by building on the results of the Regional Water Scarcity Initiative for the Near East and North Africa, and expanding it to the Asia and Pacific region.

The WASAG framework on unlocking finance assists countries to formulate projects using innovative financing mechanisms.

FAO is also supporting countries’ resource mobilization efforts by facilitating access to the Global Environment Facility and the Green Climate Fund, with projects addressing issues such as adoption of indigenous drought resilient and nutritious crops, and saline agriculture.

FAO will continue facilitating knowledge and experience sharing among Members through the WASAG platform, and knowledge products are being developed to support country-led capacity development programmes to cope with water scarcity. These include science, innovation and technology based solutions, as well as indigenous knowledge.

FAO recognizes that water is central to all the Sustainable Development Goals, and the topic of integrated water resources management is included on the agendas of all our governing bodies, including the FAO Ministerial Conference to be held in July this year.

FAO is committed to integrated water resources management for the effective transformation of global agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable.

WASAG is core to that commitment, as is the Water Action Agenda that will emerge from this Conference.

Let us continue to work together in an efficient, effective and coherence manner so that when we meet next year at the Rome Water Dialogue on Water Scarcity in Agriculture, we can report on progress achieved.

Water scarcity is a global challenge, which requires a global response,

To support our global goal of the Four Betters: Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment and a Better Life for all, leaving no one behind.

Thank you.