The Second Global Network Forum was made possible through support from the U.S. State Department, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Government of the Netherlands, and the United Nations Development Programme through the Stockholm International Water Institute's Shared Waters Partnership programme in addition to targeted support for this specific activity from the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The Second Global Network Forum will strongly leverage the Network’s growing partnerships including SIWI, ELI, OSCE, Central Asia Regional Environmental Centre (CAREC) and others. We are extremely grateful to the growing partnership working collaboratively to enable this milestone events.
The Women in Water Diplomacy Network's Second Global Network Forum took place March 4-7, 2024 in Vienna, Austria.
The After-Action Report is available below.
The Women in Water Diplomacy Network hosted its second Global Network Forum in Vienna, Austria from March 4-7, 2024. The Forum was attended by over 80 water diplomats from nearly 50 countries engaged in the Women in Water Diplomacy Networks in the Nile Basin, the Orange-Senqu Basin, Central Asia and Afghanistan, and North America, alongside other basin representatives and representatives of supporting development organizations and partners. The 2024 Global Network Forum was convened by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), and the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC) with the support of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the US Department of State and the United Nations Development Program through SIWI’s Shared Waters Partnership program, as well as the governments of inter alia Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, through OSCE.
The Women in Water Diplomacy Network was initiated in 2017 to improve gender equality in high-level water and climate decision making in transboundary basins. The Network was developed in the Nile Basin and later adapted and replicated in other basins and regions including Central Asia and Afghanistan (since 2021) and North America (2023) and the Orange-Senqu (expected April 2024) through the Network’s global strategy ‘A Path Forward for Women, Water, Peace and Security.’ In 2022, the Network convened its first Global Network Forum alongside the release of the Network’s Global Strategy at the World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden.
The 2024 Women in Water Diplomacy Network Global Forum in Vienna was designed as an opportunity to take stock of Network’s developments and priorities with strong focus on advancing the Global Strategy’s prioritized activities, fostering basin and inter-basin exchange and joint learning, and collectively marking International Women’s Day 2024 under the theme of ‘Invest in women to accelerate change.’
The first day of the Forum was full of excitement as the organizing team and development partners welcomed participants, friends, and colleagues - some for the first time after years of online collaboration, and some who have endured conflict and upheaval in recent years. With many new representatives joining the Women in Water Diplomacy Network for the first time, the day focused on getting to know each other, discovering linkages, fostering anew the Network’s collective sense of identity, and getting up to speed with developments across the Network’s many regions and basins.
During the second day of the Forum participants dug deeply into water, sharing experience on breaking barriers and impacting change in extremely challenging contexts. Participants also enjoyed learning about the Danube River, which flows through Vienna, and its more than thirty years of regional water governance experience with the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR). Participants then practiced shifting mindsets from conflict to cooperation with Professor Aaron Wolf from Oregon State University. Forum participants were also able to revisit the Network’s commitment to the UN Water Action Decade and follow up on the Network’s strong engagement at the 2023 UN Water Conference.
The third day of the Forum was devoted to critical discussions at the intersection of gender equality and water diplomacy in honor of International Women’s Day. Forum participants engaged as session facilitators and panelists providing a wealth of experience and knowledge, elevating new perspectives, and sharing key tools and approaches of value to their work as water diplomats.
The fourth and final day of the Forum was devoted to the exchange of best practices and experiences on gender mainstreaming in water management, security and conflict prevention at the OSCE. Participants were graciously welcomed to OSCE’s Hofburg premises at Ratsaal by OSCE Secretary-General Helga Maria Schmid who addressed the audience on the proven value of supporting women’s networks for peace and security. Participants then had the opportunity to exchange with representatives from OSCE participating States around themes of women, peace and security.
Beyond the immediate knowledge exchange and joint learning outcomes, the Global Network Forum’s four-day program served to foster an ever-broadening sense of group identity across the Women in Water Diplomacy Network. The rare opportunity to spend concerted time together listening, building trust, and finding common ground was highly valued by all Forum participants. The Forum’s evaluation, included in full in this report’s first Annex, provides poignant testimonials of the impacts of investing directly in women water diplomats. Forum participants did not hold back on sharing their enthusiasm for the opportunity to join the Women in Water Diplomacy Network’s second Global Forum and connect with peers from around the world as demonstrated by the flurry of social media posts disseminated across online communities.
Please reach out to Elizabeth A. Koch at koch@eli.org with any questions.