Call for nominations of experts: UN 2023 Water conference

The ISC is actively working to strengthen the role of science in key global policy processes and bring scientific evidence from across all the disciplines in debates and decision-making to address global complex challenges. In recent discussions between the current President of the UN General Assembly and the President of the International Science Council, a number of key areas for scientific inputs have been identified, including water.

The United Nations Water Conference will take place from 22-24 March 2023. This will be a major milestone since the last UN conference on water nearly 50 years ago. It is set to gather momentum to achieve the internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, including those contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The conference will also review progress on the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development” (2018–2028).

The conference will be organized around plenaries and interactive dialogues on 5 themes:      

Water for Health: Access to WASH, including the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation.

Water for Sustainable Development: Valuing Water, Water-Energy-Food Nexus and Sustainable Economic and Urban Development.

Water for Climate, Resilience and Environment: Source to Sea, Biodiversity, Climate, Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction.

Water for Cooperation: Transboundary and International Water Cooperation, Cross Sectoral Cooperation, including Scientific Cooperation, and Water Across the 2030 Agenda.

Water Action Decade: Accelerating the Implementation of the Objectives of the Decade, Including through the UN Secretary-General’s Action Plan.

Nominations from ISC Members sought

The ISC is seeking nominations of experts from its Members and affiliated bodies to support the development of an ISC white paper that addresses the above themes through an integrated approach and advise on relevant approaches and mechanisms for science to support the implementation of globally agreed goals on water. Experts may also be invited to make contributions to the preparatory process of the conference upon request by the United Nations.

The group of experts will be constituted of 8-10 individuals from the social and natural sciences in water sustainability, water management and policy, water governance, economic, social, and behavioural aspects of water use, water management and sanitation, health, the food-energy-water nexus, and science-policy-practice collaborations on water management.

Please submit names, contact details and biographical information of the nominated (or self-nominated) experts through the online form below by 16 December. In addition, the ISC secretariat will be pleased to hear of any activities that Members are planning for the UN 2023 Water conference.

We thank you in advance for your support and engagement with this work.