[2023] Project “Water in the World We Want” Phase 3: Accelerating the achievement of water-related SDGs Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Workshop
Documents
Concept Note (updated as of 13 September 2023)
Agenda (updated as of 13 September 2023)
Background
Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) by 2030 is expected to allow countries to reach an important milestone in their journey towards sustainability, as successful water and sanitation management will be a foundation for the achievement of many other water-related SDGs directly or indirectly. Indeed, “Ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” – SDG 6 – is a formidable challenge for many countries. Nevertheless, with challenges come also great opportunities.
Effective planning and policy implementation through strengthening and realigning enabling environments are critical to driving success in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs), particularly water-related SDGs at the national level. However, evidence and appropriate data for policymakers and development actors to make this happen are missing, overlapping, or even fragmented in most countries in the African region. If the countries are to achieve SDG 6, they need to assess their current national progress effectively. This means defining gaps and weaknesses and addressing them with workable policies and action plans to promote strong enabling environments for the achievement of SDG 6. These countries also need to set their own national baselines, targets, and priorities in the general SDG process and focus on the ones that can be realistically achieved by 2030.
Since 2016, a consortium of partners (United Nations Office for Sustainable Development, UNOSD; United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, UNU-INWEH; the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea, MOE; and the Korea Water Resources Corporation, K-water) has been implementing the project ‘Water in the World We Want to investigate how countries can address critical evidence gaps and deliver better policies to achieve SDG 6. The SDG 6 Policy Support System (SDG-PSS), the key output of this project, was developed during its first phase (2016-2018) to help create evidence on the enabling environment of SDG 6 at the national level in countries with limited or missing data. Five countries – Ghana, Tunisia, Pakistan, Costa Rica, and the Republic of Korea – implemented the first stones of the project in a ‘champion system’, in which one policymaker and one expert or scientist in each country were responsible for promoting the project and providing coordination for the development of the SDG 6 Policy Support System (SDG-PSS), a web-based tool to help navigate limited data conditions, relying on trends, information and broader estimates.
The SDG 6 Policy Support System (SDG-PSS), the key output of this project, was developed during its first phase (2016-2018) to help create evidence on the enabling environment of SDG 6 at the national level in countries with limited or missing data. Five countries – Ghana, Tunisia, Pakistan, Costa Rica, and the Republic of Korea – implemented the first stones of the project in a ‘champion system’, in which one water-related policymaker and one water professional in each country were responsible for promoting the project and providing coordination for the development of the SDG-PSS, a web-based tool to help navigate limited data conditions, relying on trends, information, and broader estimates.
SDG-PSS consists of the following components: Capacity Assessment; Finance; Policy and Institutional Assessment; Gender Mainstreaming; Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)/Resilience Mainstreaming; and Integrity. These components were chosen as they allow a better understanding of the enabling environment where water and sanitation policies are developed and implemented for achieving SDG 6, and were based on more than 20 well-established tools, processes, and practices already used by many countries. The questions proposed in the tool were discussed in the national workshops in five countries and went through a comprehensive revision process.
During the second phase (2018-2020), the tool was officially launched as an online platform and promoted during project-led workshops. Regional workshops were organized to extend the use of SDG-PSS in countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean regions through broader cooperation and continuous learning resulting in further refinement of the SDG-PSS. In its final version, SDG-PSS permits answering the challenge of bringing data and information from multiple international and national tools and translating them into a ‘fit-for-policy’ evidence framework. With the SDG-PSS available in six languages (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, and Korean), more than 30 countries are using or considering using the tool.
To address capacity building for systematic and effective use of the tool, there is an e-course on SDG-PSS, which provides training and teaching on how to use this system to produce evidence and data on the enabling environment for achieving SDG 6. The effort required by the SDG-PSS to get all the evidence together is an essential step for countries to evaluate better which data is missing and where gaps in policymaking exist.
The extended use of SDG-PSS requires the engagement of more water professionals, managers, policymakers, and more countries. The experience of organizing regional workshops in the second phase showed that strengthening regional partnerships and cooperation has been critical for the project’s success. Thus, the organization of regional workshops will be continued in the third phase (2021-2023) to engage more countries, promote multinational collaboration, and ensure knowledge exchange for effective use of the tool while informing policy and decision-makers on the enabling environments of SDG 6.
Since 2020, Brazil has been actively committed to the implementation of SDG-PSS by playing a critical role in promoting the tool for potential use in countries in Latin America and Caribbean region as well as in Community of Portuguese Language Countries. With its continued support, Brazil is expected to play the role of regional hub country for the current phase of the project and beyond.
The discussions in this regional workshop are expected to feed into the extended use and implementation of SDG-PSS in Latin America and Caribbean. The event will gather representatives from Brazil as a hub country along with those from some the countries that participated in previous Latin America and Caribbean region workshops of the second phase of the project. In addition, more countries potentially interested in using SDG-PSS will be invited to participate in this workshop.
Each country will be given the opportunity to test SDG-PSS prior to the event, which will facilitate exchanging updates on the project status and the use of SDG-PSS across Latin America and Caribbean countries. This will stimulate discussions and reflections on the use of the SDG-PSS while capitalizing on the opportunities for effective use of the tool.
Dates and Venue
This 3-day workshop will be organized during 20-22 September 2023 in Brasilia, Brazil.
Meeting Language
This event will be conducted in English. Translation from and to Spanish will be available onsite.
Participants
Around 30 water professionals and policymakers from the following Latin America and Caribbean countries are expected to participate in the workshop. Following the project strategy in the first and second phases, one to two policymakers and/or expert scientists from each of these countries will join the workshop. Several researchers and policymakers involved in the use and promotion of SDG-PSS in Brazil will also participate in the workshop. Other participants in the workshop will be from the project implementing partners – UNOSD, UNU-INWEH, National Water and Sanitation Agency of Brazil (ANA), UNESCO iWSSM, and K-water.
Objectives
This regional workshop will contribute to the following:
- sharing and discussing experiences, challenges, and possibilities in achieving SDG 6 at the national level;
- promoting SDG-PSS through discussions on how the tool could be used to produce evidence on water-related policymaking to strengthen the enabling environment of achieving SDG 6 at the national level; and
- discussing ways for extended use of SDG-PSS through regional cooperation for accelerated achievement of SDG 6 in the region
Organizers
This regional workshop is co-organized by UNOSD, UNU-INWEH, National Water and Sanitation Agency of Brazil (ANA), UNESCO iWSSM, and K-water.
Programme and Agenda
Day 1 (20 September 2023)
Opening Session
Moderator: Mr. Vitor Bahia Diniz, Head of Environmental Policy Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brazil
Opening & Welcome Remarks:
- Mr. Chun Kyoo Park, Head of Office, UNOSD
- Mr. Manzoor Qadir, Deputy Director, United Nations Institute for Water, Environment, and Health (UNU-INWEH)
- Ms. Ana Carolina Argolo, Director of ANA
- Mr. Antônio Waldez Góes da Silva, Minister of Integration and Regional Development
Session 1: Session I: Using SDG-PSS to support evidence-based policymaking around SDG-6
Moderator: Mr. Simon Gilby, Sustainable Development Officer, UNOSD
Session 2: Status of SDG-6 and the use of SDG-PSS in a regional hub country
Moderator: Mr. Manzoor Qadir, Deputy Director, UNU-INWEH
- Ms. Denise Kronemberger, Head of Institutional Relations of the Presidency of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) – General Status of The SDGs in Brazil
- Mr. Luciano Meneses, Deputy Superintendent of Water and Economic Studies – SDG 6 in Brazil: ANA’s Vision of the Indicators
- Ms. Fernanda Abreu, Advisor of ANA – Brazilian Experience on application of SDG-PSS
Special Session
Moderator: Mr. Simon Gilby, Sustainable Development Officer, UNOSD
- Outcomes of “UN 2023 Water Conference” and beyond
- Mr. Tomoyuki Okada, Senior Programme Management Officer, UN DESA
- Status of SDG-6 Implementation in Latin American and the Caribbean Region
- Ms. Sojeong Myoung, Programme Officer, UNESCO i-WSSM
Session 3: Feedback on SDG-PSS from participating countries
Moderator: Mr. Simon Gilby, Sustainable Development Officer, UNOSD
- Panama: Mr. Ricardo Alberto Cerrud Zuñiga and Ms. Mayela Guiteria Cortes
- Guatemala: Mr. Nery Martín Méndez Y Méndez and Ms. Elizabeth Vasconcelos Vilches
- Chile: Mr. Diego Julián San Miguel Cornejo and Ms. Andrea Loreto Osses Vargas
- Saint Kitts and Nevis: Mr. Ryan Delvin Phillip
Day 1 Wrap-up and Day 2 Notice
Moderator: Mr. Simon Gilby, Sustainable Development Officer, UNOSD
Launch of the publication on the application of SDG-PSS in Brazil
- Mr. Mauricio Abijaodi, Acting Director Presidente, ANA
Day 2 (21 September 2023)
Recap of Day 1 with a focus on SDG-PSS
Moderator: Mr. Simon Gilby, Sustainable Development Officer, UNOSD
Session 3 (continued): Feedback on SDG-PSS from countries participating countries
Moderator: Mr. Simon Gilby, Sustainable Development Officer, UNOSD & Mr. Manzoor Qadir, Deputy Director, UNU-INWEH
- Cuba: Ms. Mabel Seisdedo Losa and Ms. Regla María Alomá Oramas
- Dominica: Mr. Magnus Barny Williams
- Dominican Republic: Ms. Olga María Suriel Carrasco and Mr. Antony Federico De Oleo Montero
- El Salvador: Ms. Yanna Banessa Morales de Romero and Ms. Sol María Muñoz Aguillón
- Peru: Ms. Tanya Luz Laguna Yanavilca and Ms. Sonia Mariella Puerta Flores
- Cabo Verde: Ms. Vera Filomena Silvia Garcia Chaves
- Guyana: Mr. Rensforde Wilton Joseph
- Belize: Ms. Tennielle Cheryl Hendy
- Suriname: Ms. Jiechel Ruabsah Kasandiredjo and Mr. Radjindredath Narain
- Paraguay: Mr. David Elias Fariña Gomez
- Saint Lucia: Mr. Miguel Montoute
- Trinidad and Tobago: Ms. Riet Patrice Bowen-St Clair and Mr. Roger Karim
Session 4: Building regional cooperation around SDG-6 and SDG-PSS
Moderator: Mr. Manzoor Qadir, Deputy Director, UNU-INWEH
Day 2 Wrap-Up & Day 3 Notice
Moderator: Mr. Simon Gilby, Sustainable Development Officer, UNOSD
Day 3 (22 September 2023)
Recap of Day 2 with a focus on SDG-PSS
Moderator: Mr. Simon Gilby, Sustainable Development Officer, UNOSD
Session 4: Building regional cooperation around SDG-6 and SDG-PSS
Moderator: Mr. Manzoor Qadir, Deputy Director, UNU-INWEH
Open Discussion: The way forward for improvements in SDG-PSS
Facilitator: Mr. Manzoor Qadir, Deputy Director, UNU-INWEH
Wrap-up and Closing Session
Moderator: Mr. Simon Gilby, Sustainable Development Officer, UNOSD
- Mr. Vitor Bahia Diniz, Head of Environmental Policy Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brazil
- Ms. Gisela Forattini, Head of International Sector, ANA
- Mr. Chun Kyoo Park, Head of Office, UNOSD
- Mr. Manzoor Qadir, Deputy Director, United Nations Institute for Water, Environment, and Health (UNU-INWEH)
- H.E. Mr. Emmanuel Kamarianakis, Ambassador of Canada to Brazil
- H.E. Mr. Ki-mo Lim, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Brazil
Visit to the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO)