The Second Global Network Forum is 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 will take place March 4-7, 2024 in Vienna, Austria.
The 2024 Global Network Forum will include four intensive days of joint learning and experience exchange with an expected 80-100 Network members, leading global water experts, and Network supporters from around the world. Additionally, the program will include innovative networking and informal engagement activities as well as collective celebration of International Women's Day!
See attached overview and program and participant bios resources for details.
An After Action Report will be issued in the weeks after the Forum on this page.
The Women in Water Diplomacy Network was initiated in 2017 to improve gender equality in high-level decision making in transboundary basins with focus on women’s leadership in regional dialogues around shared waters. The Network was developed in the Nile Basin and later adapted and replicated in other water regions including Central Asia and Afghanistan and other partner basins across Africa, Asia, and the Americas through the 2022 Global Network Strategy ‘A Path Forward for Women, Water, Peace and Security.’ In person ‘Network Forums’ have long been a central feature of Network engagements. The Women in Water Diplomacy Network in the Nile has held three Basin Forums prior to the pandemic including in October 2017 in Uganda; December 2018 in Ethiopia; and January 2020 in Kenya. Each of these three Nile Basin Forums are described in the Network’s inception and development report ‘Laying the Bedrock of Transformation.’ In 2022, the Network convened its first Global Network Forum and released its Global Strategy at the 2022 World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden.
The Women in Water Diplomacy Network’s first Global Network Forum was attended by over 70 water diplomats and experts engaged in the Women in Water Diplomacy Network from across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, together with representatives of the development organizations and partners. The 2022 Global Network Forum enabled the Network Members to meet in-person after an extended period of limited travel, take stock of Network’s developments and priorities, foster inter-basin exchange and learning, and together launch the Global Strategy at the ‘A Rising Tide’ session during the World Water Week. The first Global Network Forum and Global Strategy launch are described in detail in this After Action report.
As with the first Global Network Forum, the second Global Network Forum aims to bring together Network members from across the growing global community that make up the Women in Water Diplomacy Network with focus on engaging Network members from the Nile Basin, Central Asia-Afghanistan, Southern African basins including the Zambezi, Orange-Senqu, Okavango, as well as shared basins across the Americas. The Women in Water Diplomacy Network’s Second Global Network Forum is expected to engage an estimated 70-80 women water diplomats and experts. The Forum sessions themselves will be designed over five days of in-person dialogue led by Network members providing opportunities for knowledge exchange across a range of water diplomacy related themes in addition to a negotiation simulation exercise. The proposed location will likewise enable unique opportunities for site visits to the OSCE institutions in Vienna. Following the second Global Network Forum, the Network’s Process Support Team will produce a detailed After-Action report including evaluation results and the collection of lessons learned which will be made available to all participants and development partners.
The 2024 Second Global Forum will serve as an opportunity to:
- Enable Network Members to meet in-person after extended periods of limited travel,
- take stock of Network’s developments and priorities with strong focus on advancing the Global Strategy’s prioritized activities,
- enable joint learning and discussions between Network members and supporters,
- enable inter-basin exchange and learning,
- further Network governance objectives including expansion of the Network’s Leadership Council.
Please reach out to Elizabeth A. Koch at koch@eli.org with any questions.