UN 2023 Water Conference: proposed themes, preparatory meeting dates announced

The UN 2023 Water Conference will be held in New York, from 22 to 24 March 2023.

The event, the first of its kind since 1977, is formally known as the UN Conference on the Midterm Comprehensive Review of the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Decade for Action, ‘Water for Sustainable Development’ 2018-2028.

Following a consultation process with Member States, UN entities and relevant stakeholders, the Co-hosts of the Conference, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, have proposed the following as themes of the five interactive dialogues that will be held as part of the Conference:

1. Water for Health: Access to safe drinking water, hygiene and sanitation.
2. Water for Development: Valuing Water, Water-Energy-Food Nexus and Sustainable Economic and Urban Development.
3. Water for Climate, Resilience and Environment: Source to Sea, Biodiversity, Climate, Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction.
4. Water for Cooperation: Transboundary and International Water Cooperation, Cross Sectoral Cooperation and Water Across the 2030 Agenda.
5. Water Action Decade: Accelerating the implementation of the objectives of the Decade, including through the UN Secretary-General’s Action Plan.

Dates of the preparatory meeting and stakeholder consultation announced

The President of the General Assembly has informed that the one-day preparatory meeting will be held on 25 October 2022, at the UN headquarters in New York, to finalize the themes of the interactive dialogues and other outstanding organizational matters pertaining to the UN 2023 Water Conference. To ensure the meaningful participation of all relevant stakeholders, a stakeholder consultation will be held on 24 October 2022. Additional information will be circulated in due course.

• For more information on the proposed dialogue themes, please click here.
• For more on the preparatory meeting and stakeholder consultation, please click here.