Global Water Operators' Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA) Assembly (WUF13)

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Please have your seats.
As a few of you take your seats and some come in, I'd just like to ask you to greet your neighbor and say a quick hello, find out what their name is.
I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the pa Assembly being held here on the 17th of May 2026 in this very lovely city of Baku, in the country of Azerbijan.
Before we start, I think we've all had a touch of climate change today.
It took me 4 hours to get here.
But as I did go through the floods and see parts of Baco City I wouldn't have seen if there wasn't a flood, I appreciated that irrespective of where you are, it can rain like hell.
Many times I come from Uganda, we think we have lots of flash floods and we think we have a lot of rain.
But today, I witnessed something different.
My taxi driver kept on after having had cancellations from all the boat services and even thrown out of one taxi.
They gave me a driver from the hotel and he kept on persisting.
He said, we'll get there.
We'll get there.
Indeed, finally, he gave up about 2 kilometers from here and he said, now walk.
I got here and I'm happy to be here with you.
This afternoon, distinguished delegates, excellencies, colleagues, partners, ladies and gentlemen, it's a great honor to welcome you to the UN Habitat Arena session at Wolf 13, contributing directly to the pathway toward the 2026 UN Water Conference in Abu Dhabi.
I'm joining you today as the chair of the Gpa Assembly, but also as a utility practitioner from Africa, representing utilities and operators working daily at the front line of urban transformation and service delivery.
The discussion we're having today and the issues we're going to discuss this week come at a crucial moment for the world.
Across both the Global South and the global North, millions of people still lack adequate housing, safe water, sanitation, and basic services.
In many parts of the world, especially in Africa, after a downpour like this, it's no surprise that after that, some people are still looking for water.
At the same time, cities are growing, facing grain pressures from rapid urbanization, climate shocks, economic uncertainty, displacement, and rising inequality.
In many parts of the world, conflict and instability are further straining already very fragile urban systems and deepening vulnerabilities for communities.
Housing, water, sanitation, and urban resilience can no longer be discussed separately.
I was telling my neighbor from Brazil that when we talk about housing in many of our countries, the utility providers are not in the conversation.
People are thinking about bricks and mortar.
Therefore, we need an urgent paradigm shift.
If we are serious about inclusive housing and resilient cities, then water and sanitation must be embedded into housing.
Utilities must be embedded into land and urban planning from the very beginning and not brought in later as an afterthought.
Housing without water and sanitation is not adequate housing.
This challenge is especially urgent in Africa, where rapid population growth and urbanization outstripping the pace of housing and infrastructure development.
In many cities, informal settlements are expanding faster than planning systems can respond.
When an informal settlement is improved, it is taken over by high rise commercial blocks and the people are forced to move elsewhere.
Governments must play a deliberate leadership role, strengthening integrated urban planning, investing into enabling infrastructure, supporting affordable housing, and empowering local governments and utilities to deliver sustainable services.
Through my experience and through Diop global engagement, one lesson is very clear.
Global commitments, succeed or fail through local institutions.
In this session and as we discussed through this assembly, as we prepare to go from Baku to Abu Dhabi, we need to move from just dialoguing to implementation, from fragmented approaches to integrated urban systems, and from commitments to measurable impact for communities.
At this point, I would like to invite Her Excellency, miss Redn, Masudi, our United Nations Special Envoy on Water, to come up and give her address.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Well, thank you very much.
I saw a pair of shoes there, but for sure, that is not mine.
Mine is there.
My shoes is really soaking wet, so that's why I prefer to stand with barefoot.
That is what I call resilience and adaptation.
Thank you.
Well, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, every day billions of people trust that water will flow when they open a tap at their houses.
But for 2.2 billion people, that trust still does not exist, and for 3.5 billion people, safely managed sanitation remains out of reach.
Behind these numbers is a simple reality that water and sanitation for all remains a target for to be rich.
The latest SDG six findings show that the progress is possible.
It's possible.
Look at the data.
Since 2015, 961 million people gain access to safely manage drinking water.
1.2 billion gain access to safely manage sanitation, and 1.6 billion gain access to basic hygiene surfaces.
However, colleagues, with this current pace, this progress is far too slow.
We are racing against time.
Currently, half of the world's 100 largest cities are experiencing high levels of water stress, and by 2030, over 60% of global population is estimated to live in urban areas adding more pressure to water in cities.
So to catch up, we must work at times harder to achieve the target of ensuring safely managed drinking water for all.
In this regard, water operators and utilities hold a great role as the backbone of the water collective efforts.
With water operators and utilities, the city needs to function, is ensure, the community's hope for prosperities is guaranteed and the development gains are protected and sustained.
GOPA partnership in this regard is particularly valuable.
It reflects the growing and ever stronger evidence that multilateral cooperation delivers progress and impacts on the ground.
Through cooperation with COPA, water operators and utilities are enabled to build stronger capacities, system, stronger institution, and implementation on the ground.
Colleagues, the world water is now facing unprecedented challenges, climate change and disaster, financial constraint at all levels, as well as global political tension that erodes trust in cooperation are all intertwined to disrupt our collective efforts for water.
Therefore, today, I call on all of us.
Go by members to recommit and strengthen collective efforts stronger than ever before.
In doing so, three points deserve greater collective attention.
First, resilience.
Resilience must become central of our work service delivery.
With resilience at the center, our work will move beyond business as usual.
Water surface delivery on top of its function will address the complex challenges of water and will anticipate and prevent the water challenges and risks in the future.
Facilities and infrastructure will become resilient from flood, drought, and many other risks lying in the future.
Second, integration of water across all development access, especially urban agenda.
Water is never a standalone sector.
Today, I encourage all of us to use this strategic momentum to mainstream water in urban agenda.
Water is the invisible foundation of urban agenda.
While most of the time being overlooked without water, development and progress in urban agenda can never be achieved or sustained.
Water and sanitation are not only minimum and basic surfaces in urban planning, they are key elements that will ensure resilient urban development across food system, health, energy, as well as cities and economic developments.
Last point, focus on action for the people.
Colleagues, as we move toward the UN 2026 UN Water Conference and the final years of the 2030 agenda, Implementation must not become the central focus.
The success of our works as water operators and utilities is not determined by the number of projects delivered, but by how far the people's lives are improved.
This 13 World Urban Forum and the 2026 UN Water Conference offers important opportunities to help accelerate water action for the people, and we must not waste it.
So colleagues, Excellencies, allow me to close by shaping my hope toward Guapa and its member to be the solution that our water needs.
Through resilience, integration, and focus on the people, I believe that Guapa and its member have obtained the foundation to resolve the challenges of our world's water and I stands ready to support this call and I thank you very much.
Thank you.
Back to you.
Thank you very much, Your Excellency.
Thank you very much.
Her Excellency has left us with a short acronym, which is resilience, integration, focus on people.
Please give her another big hand.
As we continue with our discussion, again, just a reminder to all of us, we do have interpreters.
We want to give them a big hand, and they're asking that when we speak, we speak directly to the microphone so that they can hear us.
I'd like to move on with our speakers this afternoon.
And at this point in time, I would like to welcome Pedro Arroyo, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights to water, and he is online.
So we watch the screen.
Because I received a very poor sound, but I hope you can hear and see me.
Well, dear friends, first of all, thank you.
Thank you once again for your trust, your support, and especially today for your invitation to address you with these brief words.
Well, as you know, the United Nations does not have an institution or agency focused on water management, and therefore, over the last few decades, the private sector has taken its place promoting the World Water Council and the World Water forums.
I often propose the following reflection.
Imagine that the WHO didn't exist and that those who periodically convened us to analyze public health risks and to address pandemics like COVID 19 were the large pharmaceutical corporations.
Well, that has been is in fact the reality in the area of water and sanitation services, management and aquatic ecosystem.
In 2023, surprising, the United Nations convened the Water Conference in New York, almost half a century after the only previous conference which took place in Mal Plata, Argentina.
While the UN's call for the meeting was very, very positive in itself, it proved largely frustrating.
I received calls from various public operators of Aquapub Europea network and some major municipalities perplexed that their applications to register for the conference had been rejected.
When asked UN the response was an explanation was, they are public entities and the governments are already at the conference.
They should be invited by their governments.
Well, without taking into account that water management is generally decentralized and in the hands of municipal governments and community authorities.
As rapporteur, in the months leading up to the conference, well, I dedicated considerable effort to convincing social movements and organizations to register, and we finally succeeded.
In fact, representatives of indigenous peoples from all regions, people water forum movements, major NGOs and community networks made enormous efforts to secure visas and funding for traveling and accommodation.
But when they arrived, they found they didn't even have a chair to follow the interactive dialogue plenary sessions.
I found that the vast majority of them in the whole frustrated and indignant.
I couldn't believe it.
A new conference will be held, as you well know, at the end of this year.
Well, dear friends, we cannot repeat the same mistakes.
This time, I'm working with something I didn't have in 2023.
The explicit support of the Human Rights Council through the resolution that mandates me to promote a human rights based approach to the conference, which in fact was absent in 2023 and broad public participation.
With this support, we have so far managed to ensure that the first interactive dialogue focuses on the human rights to drinking water and sanitation.
However, I have been emphasizing that adopting a human rights based approach does not simply mean dedicating a specific section to human rights, but rather adopting a cross cutting approach that emerges in all discussions.
For this reason, I have been insisting and they continue to do it on ensuring that in all interactive dialogues, there is at least one speaker who is a defender of rivers aquatic ecosystems and the human rights to drinking water and sanitation to provide the perspective on the issue that it concerns, those who being right holders do not have access to drinking water and sanitation and are often criminalized for defending these rights, often with women at the forefront.
Secondly, I insist on the need to facilitate the participation of right holders As is well known, we often talk about the need to promote dialogue and stakeholder participation.
When I hear this, I usually ask perhaps somewhat provocatively, do we have problems engaging in dialogue with aquaft or with large mining or agrosport corporations? The answer is usually no, no.
They usually come to all the meetings and develop their lobbying strategies daily.
Very well, I say.
But what about the network of community aqueducts in Latin America, commit? Well, an awkward silence then ensues until someone answers.
We don't know who they are.
They are community organization that manage the water for more than 100 million impoverished people in Latin America, I replied.
That is the grid gap we must address as a priority, not the only, but as a priority.
I know there will be limited funds to cover travel and accommodation for representatives of this galaxy of social organization which are now grouped under the social water platform that I am promoting.
But at the very least, it should be possible to follow the conference online and for leaders of these movements to participate also online.
We couldn't manage that in New York last time.
Finally, I'm calling for a resolution to be passed in the General Assembly that would allow municipal and community entities as well as public operators responsible for managing these services open with the human rights and basic needs of population depends.
To register and participate in the conference.
It is essential that these conferences include a specific forum for local entities, both municipal and community based, where states can hear the problems, demands, proposals, and solutions that you have to offer based on your day to day on the ground experience.
Dear friends, for your support in advancing these issues at the 2026 conference.
But above all, I ask for your active support in demanding that this conference be institutionalized so that the United Nations assumes the responsibility of convening it periodically.
To achieve this, it is necessary to bring the corresponding resolution before the General Assembly and approve it.
I am in my final year as reporter.
Someone else will take over in November.
But in the time I have left until November, this is and will be my commitment to promote the institutionalization of the conference under the responsibility of the UN, to open the conference to a human rights based approach, to promote broad social participation of indigenous people, social movements and NGOs, trade unions, interfaith platforms, and so on.
Finally, to open the conference to the full participation of local municipal and community institutions and public service providers.
I need your support, dear friends.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Pedro.
He has challenged us on the human rights based approach.
He's spoken with a lot of passion and he's very enthusiastic, but I'm wondering whether it has rubbed on to you.
Can we be even more enthusiastic, more passionate about the human rights based approach? When we've been reminded about inclusiveness, we also have many people attending this session online, and I think we are taking a step towards active participation irrespective of distance? Would like to now move to our next presenter who will make a statement.
I'd like to invite Mr.
Sebastian Herod, who is the Senior Policy Officer, Energy Urban Development mobility at the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, which we normally call BMZ.
Most welcome.
Thank you.
Thanks, Chair.
Thanks, Special Envoy.
Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, it's a pleasure to be here at the pa Assembly.
I'd like to address a few words, add a few words for the opening on behalf of the IMSAT as you rightly said, starting with a thank you for the engaged statement from the special envoy and Human Rights, very much supported from our side.
The assembly takes place at an important moment for both the global water and the urban agenda, particularly in the lead up of the United Nations Water Conference end of this year and the discussion at the HLPF in New York in July.
The development of the new vpa strategy is an important step for the alliance and we within Dimste very much look forward to the discussion today.
In particular, the stronger focus on scaling up water operators partnerships, reaching broader membership and strengthening the link with the wider UN habitat agenda appears highly relevant for us.
Water operators partnerships continue to demonstrate their value as a practical instrument for strengthening utility performance, resilience, and access to water and sanitation services, especially in rapid urban contexts.
The recognition of water operators partnership as a standalone stakeholder group at World Urban Forum sends an important signal, as we just heard and creates new opportunities for our international policy discussions.
More than 30 German utilities are already involved in the water operators partnerships.
Together with their international partners, they show how this model works in practice and creates lasting impact.
Let us continue to build on this and strengthen water and sanitation services worldwide.
Germany supports the efforts by Gbpa and UN habitat to strengthen the link between SDG six and SDG 11.
We will have our official site event SHLPF in July on this connection between SDG six water and urban and also in preparation for the UN Water Conference in 2026.
Germany also remains committed in the partnership with Javopa and Values Bon as an important hub for international cooperation on sustainable urban water and sanitation services.
We look forward to continue the close cooperation with Javopa U habitat and partners across regions to advance sustainable urban water and sanitation service and to bring strong utility perspectives into the global discussions.
I wish you all a fruitful discussion today.
Thanks.
Thank you very much, Sebastian, for those very kind words.
Again, we want to thank the German government for hosting the Joa Secretariat.
We do not take that lightly.
I think the discussion between SDG six, Water Foust and urban housing is something that will resonate throughout this whole week and thereafter.
I'd like to now invite Rad Akonza, Head of Strategy, International Cooperation and Science Department, A Bazijan State Water Resources Agency to please take the stage and make your statement, and we once again thank you for hosting this very important forum.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I think one of the hardest things to do for today is to deliver a speech, be helpful, as we just said, bo resource agents in such weather conditions.
But it's a great example that when we talk about climate change effects, we usually consider it as a part of the global warming.
But this weather condition is also climate change.
There are unfortunate effects of climate change.
Distinguished guests, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it's my great pleasure to welcome you all here to joint session of utilities and service providers and to the Javapa Assembly in Azerbijan.
On behalf of Azerbijan State Water Resources Agency, I would like to express our sincere appreciation to UN Habitant, Global Water Operators Partnership Alliance, and all participating organizations for bringing together such a distinguished community of water professionals, policymakers, utility leaders, and development partners.
Water utilities today are operating under increasingly complex conditions, as you may see.
Climate change, rapid urbanization, population growth, aging infrastructure, financial pressures, and rising service expectations are challenging utilities in every region of the world.
At the same time, these challenges are pushing us toward great innovation, stronger partnership, and more integrated approach to water gardens.
In this context, cooperation between utilities are no longer optional but essential.
Platforms such VPA create a valuable opportunity to utilities to learn ideally from one to each other.
Exchange practical experiences, strengthen it in social capacity, and accelerate progress toward resilience and sustainable water services.
Peer to peer cooperation has proven to be one of the most effective instruments for improving operational performance and advancing technological knowledge of the sector.
For Azerbijan, modernization of water sector remains strategic national priority.
Under the leadership of Azerbianide, Mr.
President Aliyev Water Commission and Azerbijan State Water Resource Agency, significant reforms are being implemented and will be implemented in the near future to improve water resource management, to expand access to safe drinking water and sanitation services, reduce water losses, strengthening wastewater management, and enhance climate resilience.
Particular attention is being given to digitalization, operational efficiency, reuse of treated wastewater and stormwater, protection of water resources, and application of modern technologies across utility operations.
We also recognize that infrastructure investments alone is not sufficient.
Strong institutions, professional expertise, and international collaborations are equally important for long term sustainability.
Today's discussions are therefore highly timely and important.
They provide an opportunity not only to discuss technical solutions, but also to strength solidarity and shared responsibility within global water community.
I'm confident that today's meetings will generate productive discussions, valuable new connections, and concentrate ideas for future collaboration.
Thank you again for your participation and commitment.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Rad.
Again, modernization of water security.
Delivery and clearly showing the role of government, the support, and the fact that the government of Abajazan is committed to creating this transformation.
We also want to thank you for setting a very good example.
I'd like to now move on to the program and I'd like to invite miss Ossa Johnson, our head of the OA, Secretariat, Urban Basic Services section at UN habitat.
Also, you most welcome.
She will take us through the program and what is going to happen today and the rest of the week.
Thank you.
Thank you very much to our chair of the Drop Assembly.
Ladies and gentlemen, all the members of Jopa and partners.
It's really an honor to have this full room here at the Drop Assembly here at the World Urban Forum.
Just for everybody to know, we are expecting any minute now the UN Habitat Executive Director, Anna Claudia Rospas to be here to conclude the opening segment.
I will just share before she comes in a little bit about what we have in store for the rest of the afternoon.
And then we will give the floor to her before we go on to the next proceedings.
Firstly, on behalf of the Gpa Secretariat, thank you very much for being here.
Thank you to those in the room and also thank you very much for all the members that have joined us online from all over the globe.
We are very proud as an alliance that are 17-years-old now.
To have over 300 institutional members, primarily represented by utilities and to have more than 2,500 individual members joining forces.
We're also very proud to have this time around being able to have our assembly embedded, as you can see, within the World Urban Forum.
This is a very significant step for us as we look at, we've heard already by BM Z the synergies between SDG six and SDG 11.
This is an opportunity for us to really integrate, sometimes a little bit separate conversations that happen around water and that happens around urban development.
From the speakers that we've heard from, this is not a coincidence.
We've heard firstly from two of our top leaders within the UN system, both the UN special envoy on water, miss Masudi and then also from the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to water.
This is clearly making a statement for us in terms of where we have aspirations.
And where we have synergy within the UN system in terms of where the alliance is going forward when it comes to our strategy.
We're also here with our main core donor of Joppa, which is B and Z.
We're very grateful for the very strong support from the government of Germany and for the Secretariat to be hosted in Bonn.
To have you here.
Then in the opening, we've also had our national utility here, Azerbaijan State Water Authority.
We want to really express our gratitude to our national utility here for the arrangements being done locally and for adding the local voice of utilities just as one of the many representatives of our alliance.
Thank you very much for framing that in terms of what we are representing as a global alliance.
As we're waiting for the executive director, allow me then just to share a few words around what we're planning for the rest of the afternoon.
We are going to be having a short presentation right after this to share what is pa at its 17th birthday? Where are we? Who are we? We understand that in the audience here and online, some are newly on boarded members, some have been members from the birth in 2009.
We will share a little bit about what the Global Alliance does and that presentation will also introduce some of the elements in terms of the strategic direction that we're going forward as an alliance.
We will open up a little bit for Q&As around that.
After that, we're giving the work to you.
We are looking forward to an interactive group brainstorm around how it would look like.
We've heard calls including from the special envoy and the special rapporteur.
How do we scale up? How do we make an even larger impact in the next 2026 2029 strategy? How does that look like together and how will you be working on that? The last part of the DOPA Assembly we'll be looking at the roadmap to the UN Water Conference, and we will have a panel.
We will be also in the end of that panel exploring with you as utilities and as partners of utilities, what do we want to get out of the water conference? What matters for water and sanitation utilities and how do we reach that target? Before I close this segment, Madam Chair, we had a very nice acronym that you put together.
I would like to add another A, which is alignment, and I would like to call on us to stay aligned.
We are in a challenging and resource scarce environment where the needs are at the same time rapidly increasing.
I feel we are in alignment as an alliance.
I feel it in the room, and I hope we feel so online as well.
Let us stay focused and aligned as we work on the last mile to achieve the SDGs in this last part of the DUO strategy.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you very much.
We did baptize you mama, Mamajaa.
Our mother, we thank you for those very nice words and also for setting the tone for what is going to happen.
We will move on to the next part, and when Her Excellency comes in, we will then allow her to address us.
Again, the acronym, I will start at the back because I'm not sure if they're with us.
What's the first letter? Moving on to the front, first letter, shout it out.
A was the last one, which is alignment.
The first letter, anyone remember? Yes, R four, resilience, then I four, integration, then F four, man, focus.
Please focus.
We have two other letters.
P, but before P, there was a small O, focus on people.
Can you write it down? Re.
That those are buzz word for this afternoon.
I'd like now to move to the agenda item, which is on the 17 years of strengthening utility capacities, the state of the OA and strategy 2026 to 2029.
I would like to invite again, Osa to come and lead us through that.
As she's doing this, some of you may not have been there at the beginning.
I was fortunate to be there at the very beginning of the story, and my have we really grown.
We are looking very excitedly at what the future will hold, but would like to hear what has transpired.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I may take a break in this presentation when our executive director comes in, which is estimated around 102.
But let's continue so that we can get through our joint understanding of where we are as an alliance.
We can go to the next slide.
Next slide, please.
And Great.
So as our chair already said, and we have some really strong pillars in this alliance who's been with us since the division was planted by the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, that we can work very effectively by peer to peer partnerships between utilities.
This was pitched at the time by the Secretary-General and since then we have been growing.
The SDGs, of course, has come, and we have also moved the alliance from our first host in Barcelona in Spain to Germany in 2000 and the memberships and the type of activities has also grown quite expansively.
We celebrated our 15 years in the Last World Urban Forum in Cairo, and here we are now two years later.
Next, a little bit about EPA.
I've already mentioned our membership.
We are in over 135 countries when it comes to utilities that are involved in our network, and we are basically an alliance that is based on peer to peer twinning between utilities known as water operator partnerships and sanitation focused partnerships.
So Many of you are old time whoppers and swappers and if you're new to this, please add this to your acronym list.
You need to leave this room knowing what a whoop is because we've made a water pledge and we're increasing the number of whoops by 2030.
Next slide.
Some of the challenges that are framing the work that we're doing here.
Firstly, we're at the World Urban Forum.
We've heard words around urbanization.
It's important to bear in mind the over 1 billion people that live in overcrowded, informal settlements and inadequate housing.
I know that many of the utilities here and online are working with such communities, and you know better than anyone how challenging these day to day realities are.
2.1 billion people without access to contamination free water and 3.5 billion and even higher number with sanitation that is lagging even further behind and at the same time, a huge increase in the expected demand for water.
Next.
Where do utilities come in? Firstly, they're deeply embedded into two of our guiding documents as an alliance, both in the SDGs, and we've unpacked here in this slide the SDG six, and also in the New Urban Agenda, where there are several paragraphs that highlight explicitly the significance of service delivery in terms of achieving the New urban agenda.
So at the heart of the practical part of both the New Urban Agenda and SDGs utilities.
Thanks.
Where do we come in as an alliance? We are focused on strengthening the capacities of these utilities.
We recognize together that if utilities do not have the capacities and the enabling environments to to do their work and to scale up their work, their role within the SDG framework cannot be fully fulfilled and the results are in just increased alarming numbers of people denied their human rights.
What are water operator partnerships? You all know now that they are WPs and they're basically a solidarity based approach to capacity building where Staff in one utility train up staff in another utility, usually through a longer term two to three year arrangement.
What's very important here is that it's what we call eye to eye level collaboration.
Utility staff in one utility and different staff depending on the different areas that are identified for improvements, work in a long time, trust building relationship with staff in other utilities.
This doesn't take away from any other types of capacity building efforts that of course are equally important.
There are consultancies, there's a huge academic need of training of utilities.
There's many other areas to strengthen it, but this is the niche that we have seen.
There's a huge demand for, and we're also seeing big results.
Sharing just a few inspirational quotes as we are here at the assembly, and I think we can go to the next slide.
Some of the impact so far, we have supported more than 770 utilities.
We play a significant role also in documenting water operator partnerships.
These are not only ones that are implemented by the DOPA Secretariat or by DOPA members themselves.
It can also be by other partners, where we play a role in documenting it in an observatory.
We have documented 492 WPs we will call on all of you to have a look at our observatory and if your WPs are not listed there, we would like to make sure to embrace them and have them reported at the UN 2026 Water conference.
There's other achievements here, of course, as well in terms of the staff number of staff that have been trained and most importantly, 63 million people that we believe have been affected positively by these improvements.
Next.
So importantly in terms of the structure of how we work as an alliance and we're here as a full membership today for the assembly is that we work through also regional platforms.
We have many of them represented here today.
We work with regional platforms in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, and in Caribbean, and we're also at the moment exploring setting one up for Southeast Europe and hopefully also in the new strategy for North Africa and the Middle East as well.
And we also have national web platforms.
This we see as a very effective way of scaling up at national level.
Next.
In terms of governance and will not take too much time here, we shared in the background documentation for those of you who are not familiar with the charter, and also just here to briefly explain that Japa is hosted by UN Habitat, facilitated by UN Habitat, the Japa Secretariat that I'm heading and have my colleagues here, Ann, Sobana and Julie, who many of you know, are based in Bonn, and we have the Secretariat the steering committee that is headed by the UN Habitat Executive Director with several steering committee members here in the room as well.
And the assembly which represents all of our membership, and that is what we're convening here.
Thanks.
In terms of who we are as institutional members, sharing here just a little glimpse.
As mentioned earlier, the membership is predominantly represented from public utilities and also a number of supporting partners working in the sector where you can see a breakdown here.
In terms of regional representation, we are global We have the strongest forces coming in terms of numbers from African utilities and we are doing a strong membership drive to get more and more utilities joining.
Please let your networks, wherever you're working, let them know about joining, which is free of charge to be a member of Turpa.
I mentioned a little bit about the observatory.
We have a number of different platforms and we have a responsibility as, let's say, the mother of water operator partnerships to document these and to manage a system of knowing the typologies, how they work, and assessing which modalities work better, lessons learned, et cetera, in our observatory and different profiles.
Next.
The next few slides we'll also share just a little bit about the type of work we do so that you get a glimpse into some of the different work streams.
So I've mentioned the management of understanding globally, how many WPs there are, how do they look like? How do they feel like? How do they function? We run a number of different programs.
I will not go into them here in detail, but we have a number of programs and the biggest one is funded by the European Union in implementing water operator partnerships at country level.
We're very excited to soon be starting 30 new partnerships through the EU WPS program, and we have several other programs going on at the moment as well.
The government of Netherlands, it's related to the knowledge around WPS.
From Gates Foundation, it's focused on sanitation.
With UNICEF, we're working in Ukraine and last year ended the collaboration in Ethiopia and with the UN development account, we're working right now in Southeast Asia.
Next.
Another area of our work is on the normative arm.
This is where we produce publications, the most known knowledge that there is around both utilities and their significance in delivering on the SDGs, and this is a number of areas of work that we're going to be working on within the next strategy.
Next.
Online courses, trainings, we'll be happy to hear from you as we explore the rollout of the strategy, both if there's particular knowledge products that would be useful to produce and if there's any trainings that we can collaborate on as well.
Next.
I've mentioned the EU WPS program as one of the bigger programs that we have, and I think we can go to the next slide.
Maybe just to say that we've completed Phase one with 22 partnerships.
This gives us an immense treasure of lessons and learnings around the impacts of WP and how to refine the practice.
We will be in the coming months be sharing the impact assessment reports from that.
Next I.
Briefly on our community of practice.
This is an online, thriving community.
It enables us to reach many more utilities globally through a lot of different topics across over 850 utilities as well.
Next.
I think the last slide just to give you a bit of a flavor of the lines of work that we do is the flagship Water Operator Partnership Congress that happens every two years.
We've been very honored to be holding it in Bonn for the last two years and two times and we're planning now for the next one to be happening next year.
Next.
I think you can go to the one before.
Also want to highlight here, and I think very significant with our leadership here with the water envoy in terms of planning for the UN 2026 Water conference, is the lead up and the preparatory work that we're doing in terms of advocating for utilities and in terms of making sure that their voices are heard, working with the special rapporteur Pedro Arroyo on how to really work on this together.
This is an excellent point to close in just a minute, highlighting that we've made a pledge at the UN 2026 23 conference to scale up water operator partnerships by 2030, and we want to explore with you how we can really truly achieve that vision.
I will break here quite naturally before we go on to further details on the strategy and leading into the next agenda item with the great honor of handing back to our chair and to have our conclusion of the opening.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Osa, please give her hand.
As you give her hand, also, please welcome Her Excellency, Anna Cladia Rosbach the Executive Director of your inhabitat.
We are very happy to have you with us today.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chair in this very water is day.
Good afternoon to everyone.
Excellency, distinguished GOPA members, partners, colleagues from the UN system.
Friends, ladies and gentlemen.
It's a pleasure to welcome you to the GOP Assembly here in Baku during the 13th sess of the Word forum.
This assembly comes at a timely and important moment on the roadmap we are on together to the UN 2026 Water Conference.
A key milestone, we've seen the international decade for action on water and in mobilizing our efforts to achieve the last mile of the SDGs.
Across the world, Deficits in housing, land, and basic services remain closely intertwined.
Some 3 billion people are affected by inadequate housing while 1 billion live in slumps or informal settlements.
At the same time, 2.1 billion people lack safely managed drinking water and 3.4 billion lacks safely managed sanitation.
UN habitats new strategy has a central focus on housing, land, and basic services and within it recognizes water and sanitation operators as a foundational to sustainable urbanization.
Every day, water and sanitation operators do essential work that often goes unseen, yet their work is of critical importance.
At least 285,000 utilities worldwide provide services that are indispensable in our cities.
Stronger local systems for delivering basic services accelerate progress on SDG six directly.
They also accelerate SDG 11 by improving living conditions in informal settlements.
Dear GPA members and partners, you are on the front line of persistent challenges, including aging or inadequate infrastructure, limited finance, capacity gaps, rapid urban growth, and rising climate pressures, placing growing pressure on already stretched systems.
Working together with institutions represented within GiOA meeting here today in Baku and also online is essential to improve service delivery and advance the human rights to water and sanitation and make adequate housing and basic services a reality for all.
GOA was created for this opportunity.
For 17 years, the Alliance has championed a simple and powerful idea.
Operators can help operators.
Through water operators partnerships, utilities work side by side.
They share experience, solve problems together, build trust, and learn from each other as peers.
This is solidarity in practice.
A technician helping another technician reduce water losses, a utility sharing emergency preparedness plan or on extending services to low income customers.
In 2025, GPA continued to show what this cooperation can achieve.
The Secretariat supported 42 active partnerships, contributing to improved access to water and sanitation services for more than 260,000 people.
The first phase of the EU Water Operators Partnerships Program strengthened utility staff and improved services for hundreds of thousands of people.
The sixth Global WPS Congress in Bonn showed the strength of this movement.
More than 550 participants from over 70 countries came together around the shared conditions.
Stronger utilities are essential to thriving cities.
This week here in Baku, that message reaches a wider urban stage.
For the first time, utilities and service providers are being recognized as a dedicated stakeholder group in the World Urban Forum process.
As we look ahead to the 2026 United Nations Water Conference and beyond, please count on EN Habats support on a joint roadmap that will be discussed in today's assembly.
The high level meeting of the UN General Assembly on the review of the New Urban Agenda this July, as well as the ongoing work of the open ended working group on housing will underline how GOPA's work and operators perspectives are relevant to this policy processes.
We'll continue to work with member states and partners for stronger recognition of water operators partnerships in multilateral processes, for stronger visibility and a firmer basis for scaling this proven model.
The Local 2030 coalition is also a vehicle for emphasizing collaboration with local and regional governments to accelerate SDG delivery on the ground.
Implementation ultimately depends on the people and institutions that deliver services every day, capable operators, supportive policies, adequate financing, and partnerships that last beyond individual projects.
Change will come from you as members and partners of the alliance, from utilities willing to share what they know, from partners ready to invest in capacity, not only infrastructure, from governments that create the conditions for operators to perform and from communities whose voices must guide delivery.
Ladies and gentlemen, this assembly is not only a governance moment.
It is a moment to reflect on how the alliance moves forward with greater unity, ambition, and purpose.
Let us use this assembly.
To listen to operators, raise their voice, and back the institutions that deliver.
The forthcoming new GOA strategy can help us to do that, strengthen utilities, deepen solidarity among operators, expand the scale and quality of partnerships, and place water and sanitation more firmly within global urban climate and development agendas.
Let us move forward with solidarity, urgency, and hope.
I wish the Assembly the best in its deliberations and look forward to hearing the outcomes.
Invite your strong engagement at this Warden forum where water and sanitation operators are central actors.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Your Excellency, for those very insightful words and for inspiring us to not only, as we've discussed this afternoon, be resilient, integrated, focused on people, in alignment and in partnerships.
We bring back the P.
We thank you for pushing the agenda and for raising the voice of the Alliance, even in the World Urban Forum.
Another round of applause for Her Excellency as she leaves us, and we'll be seeing you the rest of the week.
One thing that has come out from Howard is to remind ourselves that we are going to achieve this with each other and by each other.
Also, I don't know if you are ready to finalize the last part before we break for one or two questions.
Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
The next few minutes will serve as a bridge, I think from the great inspiration from our UN Habitat executive director and expectations set out, and then moving into how we're going to work together on the strategy.
If we could go back to where my slides ended, which was with the water conference pledge.
Yes.
Next, please.
We can go to the next slide.
The next.
Great.
So I think what we want to do here is to give you elements of where we are in terms of thinking about the strategy, which is under further consultation also with the management of habitat in terms of aligning with the habitat strategy, with BM Z, in terms of shaping it and making sure that it's aligned within a number of different frameworks.
I will present some of those elements here that we can then expand on in our interactions in the next segment.
Next, Firstly, and importantly for us, we had a midterm evaluation two years ago and the evaluation told us that the directions that we're in within the current host agreement with BM Z, which is right now extended up to the end of 2028, is really in the right direction and we were encouraged in the midterm evaluation to look further at scaling up WPs.
We've heard it also from our BM Z representative to further integrate into habitats programming, which I think being here at the World Urban Forum is really illustrating in terms of the efforts that we're making amongst some of the other refinements that came from the midterm evaluation.
Next.
That was an important component for us and the next evaluation will be taking place in the first quarter of 2027.
We also have a number of other contexts to take into consideration.
We have the UN habitat strategy that has come out, that is for 26 and 2029, and I will show here in the next slide a bit about that.
The habitat strategy is very exciting for us as an alliance because Putting housing at the center of what UN habitat does comes hand in hand with basic services.
What this means is that the work that we're doing, and we've heard from the UN Habitat Executive Director is very central in terms of being able to achieve the strategic plan on delivering adequate housing for all.
So we are embedded fully into the work that habitat will do in terms of bringing further access of water and sanitation, doing so in a climate responsive way, and in particular looking at what it means in the rapid expansion of informal settlements.
Next.
Here we have the pillars of the UN Habitat strategic plan, inclusive prosperity and poverty tgation, resilience, preparedness and response and environment and climate action, which we should be keeping in back of our minds as a framework in terms of how do utilities deliver across these areas, which I think we're already doing in the strategy that's ended, and we will definitely be picking up in a more articulate way in the next strategy.
Next.
Global challenges to address, the global housing crisis, which is what we really focused on in the World Urban Forum, climate change, we're facing it just today, as we've heard from speakers already.
The resource constraints, finance and capacity remains acute and on top of that, widespread water scarcity.
We start to hear more and more language around water bankruptcy and it's very clear that water is a highly urgent matter.
Next.
The global momentum is at the same time building up.
This is a photo from the Joppa Congress where we were also graced with the UN special envoy full support.
We're in the UN Water decade.
Many of us are on to D Chamber for the preparatory meeting there next week.
And we are rolling out the UN system wide strategy with a number of different events and milestones also within the Alliance.
This includes being very active in the high level political forum, being active in the COP on the certification, and I know we have a representative here as well.
We will be engaging in the Water Day, amongst other significant stops on the way to the Water conference.
Next.
These are the guiding frameworks.
I think I don't need to probably repeat.
I think we're quite familiar with them.
Maybe the only one to mention is the UN 80.
This is the reform package of the United Nations and this is one of the ones where as Jabopa as an alliance facilitated by a UN agency, we also need to be very recognizant of.
Next.
Sharing here a set of pillars that are being considered in terms of how we package our work, which will give us some flavor as we also go into the group work in just a few minutes.
Around one pillar are the operator capacities and the performance or strengthened of utilities.
This is really the bread and butter of what bapa does.
Many of you are involved in such programs with water and sanitation focused operator partnerships.
Hand in hand with actually doing the WPs comes knowledge programs, trainings, some of it that I've shown you which complements the skills needed to be able to implement water operator partnerships effectively.
A second pillar of work, which also came out strongly from the midterm evaluation is How are we doing as an alliance when it comes to the context in which utilities are strengthened? Is it enough for a utility to be fully, fully capacitated through a water operator partnership? Are we looking enough at the regulations, at the city planning, and other actors that are supporting utilities? This is all focused now in a set of work that we are planning to advance and want to hear more of from you around advocacy, both at the international level but also at national levels, frameworks, policies to support utilities.
And the third pillar is around us as a movement.
How do we work in the most efficient way? Are we sharing enough? Are we doing it in enough languages? Are we online enough? Are we producing the right things? Are we communicating and are we scaling up as an alliance? How do we mobilize ourselves even more to scale up? Next.
I think I've highlighted these three pillars already, but just a tiny short bit of deep dive.
In terms of water operator partnerships, we will be called upon to reflect how we can expand even more rapidly and effectively informal settlements and SMS? How do we bolster financial linkages? How does south south and triangular cooperation look like, which is more and more of a modality as well for water operator partnerships, and how do we continue to ensure that gender dimensions are centrally focused in all water operator partnerships? What does that look like in practical terms, both in terms of women benefiting from access to water, but very importantly in this sector in terms of women in the workforce and women in the leadership of the workforce? This is a workforce issue as well.
Next.
When we look at this pillar around the multi level governance mechanisms or the enabling environment, how does it look like for us to work more closely with municipal authorities and regulators, et cetera, as just mentioned, and how can we do so and really lift up the broader framework.
Next, and I think one of the last slides, I think for this one, already introduced the topic of how we can be more effective in terms of how we grow and thrive as a diverse alliance.
Next, With that, I will close the introduction to who we are, what we do, and some of the thoughts where we were aspiring to go as an alliance and we'll welcome the next speaker to kick off the session of hearing about how this will look like for the next few years ahead.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Asa.
I hope we've all heard it's almost a helicopter view of what we are, where we are going, and the strategy that lies ahead.
But it also means we need to still go back and read the documentation that we've been given so that we are kept abreast with what is happening.
We are going to move into the agenda item two on operationalizing the GEOA strategy.
And just to remind us that this is not just a strategy that is developed top down.
It also has a lot of bottom up participation where all of us are still encouraged to look at this strategy and make our contributions.
It's windy outside, don't mind the wind, the building or structure won't fly away.
I was told it's really strong, so no need to worry and getting a little wet in the afternoon is nothing given what we went through in the morning.
I would like to invite our speakers who are going to take the espresso part.
It's a coffee that we're going to drink as we listen very fast.
Also ask Julie to move closer to the front.
I'll ask them to come to the front and take a seat, and you have 3 minutes to give us a little dose of your thoughts, starting with miss Natalia Pacheco, the technical coordinator W Colombia.
We have misses Fustina Bau, Chief Manager, low income Customer Support, Gara Water Limited, Mr.
Chris Coenzy, Senior Advisor, Water and Environment, UNICEF Global Wash Practice.
Mr.
Norio Saito, Senior Sector Director, An Urban Development Sector Office, Asian Development Bank, Mr.
Tarek L.
Sheikh, Director of Urban Training and Studies Institute Housing and Building, National Research Center, Ministry of Housing Utilities and Urban Communities, Egypt.
Please give them a hand.
You need to clap so that your hands get warm.
That's better.
You have 3 minutes each and I will be timing.
We'll start with Natalia.
Hello.
Good afternoon, everyone.
It is an honor to participate on behalf of AcuDal, the organization that I represent.
I'm Wob Colombia.
Wb Colombia was created as a platform collaborative.
A collaborative platform to strength water and sanitation utilities, through peer to peer cooperation, knowledge exchange, and solidarity among operators, operators.
Today, our network connects almost 40 utilities across Colombia, promoting technical capacity development, innovation, and long term sustainability in the sector.
Our involvement in WPS comes from a strong belief.
Utilities can learn faster and generate greater impact when they work together and can share real operation experience.
In many cases, the most valuable solution come directly from other utilities facing similar challenges.
Um, through Colombia, we have facilitate partnerships focused on topics such as non remute water reduction, was weated trimming plant operation, energy efficiency, governance, digitalization, and institutional training.
Beyond technical improvements, these partnerships also builds truths, leaderships and collaboration between territories and institution.
One important lesson for our experience is that work should not be seen only as a isolate projects.
They need to become part of the national capacity, developing strategies and should be connected with financing opportunities and institutional support mechanisms to ensure long term continuity and scale.
For the future, we believe the New i Wba strategy represents an important opportunity to extend regional platforms, increase visibility of impacts, and mobilize more and support utilities, especially in developing countries.
Finally, for Colombia, we would like to raffen our commitment to continue strengthening cooperation among utilities and contribute to more resilient, inclusive and sustainable water and sanitation services.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Do well within time.
We'll move on to Faustina.
Thank you, Chen for the opportunity.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Yes, our cities are growing fast.
Climate pressure is rising.
We have all seen that today, and utilities are being asked to do more with less while ensuring that no one is left behind.
The global outlook on water and sanitation service providers, that is the water for sanitation cities puts it plainly, strong, resilient utilities are essential for sustainable cities and for SDGCs.
But here is the honest part.
No single utility can do it all alone, and this is where whoops come in, right? The idea is simple and powerful.
Utilities helping utilities through practical peer learning, technical exchanges, and real operational improvements.
At Ghana Water, we have seen this firsthand.
Some of our best solutions have come directly from our service providers.
From our WAP partners, I mean, WAPs have created a trusted space where we share practical experience, tested solutions, and hard won lessons.
So we are able to improve together, growth, our performance, and become stronger institutions.
Let me share three examples from Garner Water.
Our partnership with Groomer Valley Water, Freetown Ceron shows what regional cooperation can do.
Through Pier Exchange, we have shared operational experience and approaches to utility management through the utility simulation games, for example, and our partnership has also put real focus on improving water services for vulnerable urban communities in Freetown.
Because if we are serious about SDGCs, then service improvements will have to and we have to make sure that service improvements reach the people who too often are left behind.
Through our collaboration with the Netherlands, we have also strengthened our capacity where it counts, reducing non revenue water, improving operational efficiency through access and hydraulic modeling.
We have also developed our staff capacity, and this has been practical utility to utility cooperation, focusing on solving real operational challenges.
My time is up.
That's okay.
Thank you.
We also have a strategic cooperation with As Vand which has also opened up further knowledge sharing on innovation, climate resilience and sustainable utility management while building institutional relationships that last.
So these partnerships point to an important truth.
WAPs deliver impact because they are built on trust on experience and practical action.
And so as we look forward to the WAPA strategy 2026 to 2029, the task ahead is clear.
We must scale up peer learning, strengthen utility leadership, and invest in young professionals and women leaders.
Thank you very much for your time.
Thank you very much.
You ate into Chris's time.
Chris.
How very easy.
I'll try and be brief.
I work with UNICEF and nice to see so many people in the room.
Our engagement in WPS comes from a very proven and practical reason and that's CapEx investments in utilities in the actual infrastructure do not deliver services.
Sustainable services are delivered by operators and they need to go together.
We always have to think about an investment in hardware complemented by an investment in capacity development.
UNICEF, there's 1.1 billion children living in urban areas right now and these are accelerating.
A lot of those children live in more, let's say peri urban areas.
For us, it's a very high risk group.
We're working with a number of countries on addressing this issue.
The WPS is one of the tools we have on our toolkit of doing it, and we're happy to support it.
I'd say maybe one thing I'll go over three quick things.
I have 2 minutes, so it's a very short thing, but three learnings that we've done.
We've done WPs in a number of countries with various partners including GOPA.
The first learning, I think other people have mentioned already is that W's not a theoretical learning.
It's somebody sitting in a room that comes from a utility who's already gone through that challenge and addressed that challenge.
I had one staff member say to me that you know, we can do this.
They've already done it.
That sort of understanding of sharing of people addressing similar problems that have already gone through it and now exchanging that learning works.
We've seen it on non revenue water.
We've seen it on customer support, the interface, we've seen it on collection.
We've seen it on so many aspects of what a WP can do.
Of course, as you know, the WPs are designed you know, utility by utility or operator by operator.
So you have that flexibility to be able to say, this is what we want to look at.
This is our challenge right now and that learning is critical and it works.
It's not a theoretical learning.
We've seen it works and we've seen reductions in our work in Ethiopia with João, we've seen non revenue water drop 43-27%.
It's not solely due to that, it's part of a package, but that I guess is my point.
It's a package approach.
Maybe when we go into the um to the group work that we've talked about.
Let's think of how we can elaborate and leverage the WP more.
I think that comes to my second point, which is WPs can't be thought of as in isolation.
I think also you've already said this and some of our colleagues have already.
You need a system strengthening package to enable somebody at the decentralized level to have a sustainable service.
It has to do with tariffs, it has to do with policy.
There's all kinds of aspects and we need to make sure that we keep that in mind and move forward with that.
Then my third point, I think is something else that we can leverage capacity development shouldn't be considered and I think I said it earlier, so I scold myself.
It shouldn't be considered soft.
It's a part of the hardware.
As part of the investment, it leads to financial sustainability and I think we need to sell that more.
We talk all the time about having portfolio ready projects.
This is such a buzzword in our sector right now as far as on the investment side as we expand services in different areas or rebuild.
UNICEF we work a lot in conflict settings as we rebuild those services.
I think if we can sell the WP better as an integrated package of that portfolio, it will help also accelerate WPs, but then also helps the financial sustainability of some of these utilities where we're putting investments.
We know that if we address non revenue water, for example, we're going to have a higher throughput.
We're going to be able to repay your time.
I didn't do good on my time.
My apologies chair.
I'll stop with just a thank you all for joining and happy to be here represent Us.
Thanks.
Thank you.
I gave you some extra time when you started talking about selling WPs.
That was very interesting.
We will now move on to Noria.
Good afternoon and thank you so much for having Asian Development Bank in this important occasion.
ADB started its own water operators partnership, actually back in 2007, slightly before GWA.
So far, we have been supporting 92 20 programs across 30 countries and one of the key features of ADBs water operators partnership is that we are linking this with ADB Finance project.
So when the water utilities in our member countries, are implementing water sanitation improvement, that's when we also involve the twinning arrangement so that the water utilities can benefit from these capacity building aspects as well.
In 2023, we renamed it to Water Organization Partnership for resilience, and of course, one objective is to strengthen the aspect of resilience, but also we expanded the scope to ribs organizations water sector regulators, and also possibly private utilities also when the ADB private sector operations support such private sector operators.
Also another aspect is that we really strengthen the monitoring evaluation framework, results chain to make clear that what we want to achieve through one to two years of water operators program, or we call it work for all.
And in terms of the areas of this water Or partnership for resilience, common areas include non revenue water management, financial sustainability, wastewater sanitation management.
But recently, more and more interests on digitalization, smart water management, and also asset management so that more assets are created and many utilities are facing challenges in how to really operate the assets efficiently so that the services are delivered in a sustainable manner.
And just a few lessons that we have observed in this 18, 19 years of experience is that as A team has really highlighted, we also think that this winning arrangement is very, very effective in capacity development.
And in our case, by linking with ADB finance investments, the utilities are really motivated to committed to strengthen their capacity, and also they have resources available for water and sanitation improvements.
Another part is that the Because of this, it's important to have robust monitoring and evaluation framework so that we can measure what has been achieved, what went well, or what did not work well.
Last point is that I'm happy to report that four utilities became mentors for mentees in the past.
Two water utilities in Vietnam, one in the Philippines, one in Fiji.
So they received the support in the past, but now they're supporting other, you know, kind of south south collaboration, and we are expanding this approach.
Last point is that we also established a partnership with Gp and the collaboration includes knowledge sharing partnerships and cost sharing and the and a quality assurance measures.
So we look forward to collaborating with BOPA as well in this expanding in continuing this water operators partnership.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Norio for showing us the excellent example of infrastructure directly linked to capacity building and for also giving birth, Tarek, over to you.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning, everyone.
From the perspective of the Urban Training and Studies Institute of the Arab Republic of Egypt and our experience in supporting technical capacities in Egypt, Arab States, and also Africa.
I would like to just shed light on specific key areas that we would think that would be important for us and for GPA to work.
The first thing is that from our experience of transferring the kids of Egypt water sector experiences to build resilient local systems across Africa and Arab states in collaboration with our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have been working on utility decentralization and regulatory oversight as key areas for supporting the transformation and more of decentralization, advancing engineering codes, our institutions responsible for the different codes of practices and also supporting investment readiness.
We are aiming and looking at the strategy could look into the advocacy and regional policy guidance, building on regional strategy and regional institutions to support COPA at the different levels.
Also, the second pillar is to look into technical and digital innovation in supporting and communication, supporting different operators at different country level.
The Pillar three is actually focusing and as I was mentioning about the challenges of finance, looking at blended financing and regional scaling by South South collaborations.
As it is very important that we highlight and focus that water as a public good is essential to be looked at and championing non profit works.
Prioritizing public public partnerships over commercialized models to protect access for vulnerable and informal settlements is key.
I gender transformative management is another dimension that in Egypt and with collaboration with habitat Cairo, we have been training women in community level plumbing and maintenance aligned this is aligned with Gpa role as 2026 UN Habitat gender champion.
From our perspective and from our institutional capacities, HBRC and its Institute for sanitary Engineering, we bring standards for advanced water sanitation treatment, chemical safety, and pipeline quality control peer training.
These are some of the components that we are providing for Africa and the least developed Arab states through our technical cooperation mandate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Also, the Urban Solutions lab that we have in our institute.
We provide smart water loss reductions, GIS based networking mapping, and customer feedback tracking for specific pilot areas in Egypt, and we are looking to extend this elsewhere in collaboration with GOPA.
The harmonized codes and local standards for plumbing and circular wastewater reuse in agriculture.
This is another dimension.
Last month, we had a training workshop for public private partners.
Finally.
Finally, this is my final.
In partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we focused on physical infrastructure as well as capacity building for African countries and South South knowledge collaboration.
I believe that from our perspective that making safe water and sanitation reality for all requires our partnership and collaboration at different levels, country level, regional levels, and international level.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, Trek, a big hand to the Espresso makers.
Thank you all for your good interjections and throwing some new thoughts to us.
I'd like to invite Julie up to lead us through the group work and Hello.
Oh, you can hear me.
Okay.
Great.
I'd like to maybe give us a short break to stand and stretch a little bit.
Now we are going to move around.
So please stay because the most interactive part is starting now.
You can also grab coffee.
This is served already on the side of the room.
Let's have a kind of a chill out chat around the group work.
We're going to have three different groups and I'd like to have each of you picking one of the group.
Please, Julie Sobana come in one each corner.
We will have in the corner here we have Sobana with Fusina Ignatius on priority thematic direction to discuss the operationalization of a new strategic direction for gua, what we need to do? Are we overseeing any thematic focus like climate change, vulnerable groups.
Please join Sobana and our kind members who will facilitate this group work.
In the second corner with Mr.
Julie Perkins, we will have Yolanda and Natalia for group three, and you should still have your little board, but you can flag your hand.
It's okay.
We will look at partnerships and scaling approaches.
And in group two, this is me actually, and I will stand in the other corner there with Naomi and DMA, my distinguished habitat colleagues, and we will be talking about country level engagement.
Please each of you pick one of the corners and join the facilitators, grab some coffee, and we have 30 minutes to discuss.
It has to be short but intense like espresso actually.
Thank you very much.
Can we take our seats? Please wrap up the group work.
At least give your sticky notes because we will not report together on that, but we will capture that and try to have a few highlights at the very end of the assembly.
But please hand over your sticky notes with your brilliant and inspiring ideas.
Thanks so much for participating.
We are done.
Yeah.
Thank you, guys.
Yolanda, make sure you get all the sticky notes.
Yeah.
Take a picture.
Time's up.
Thank you, Ann.
Please take your seats.
I'd like to thank our facilitators for the group with a hand clap, if you may and another big hand clap to yourselves for participating.
Okay.
Esther, I hope you have finalized with your group.
We have about slightly over 45 minutes before we end the assembly and would like to keep to time to allow interpreters to also take a rest.
Please find your seats and we move into our next session.
We will look at the road map to the 2026 UN Water Conference.
I would like to ask those who are having a little bit of a chat chat to pay attention to me.
As we prepare for the UN water conference, this session will mobilize an effective collective effort by DOPA members and partners in highlighting the crucial role of water and sanitation utilities and the water operator partnerships at the historical event that will be held in December in Abu Dhabi.
I would like to invite P Tano from UN Habitat Nairobi to come and moderate the session.
And as he comes forward, we will have Mr.
Sebastian Vasule, head of the Secretariat Local 2030 Coalition, UN Habitat.
I hope he's here.
Esther Gugi, Corporate Planning and Strategic Offer Ne Water and Sanitation Company, Kenya.
We have misses Ebro Kanan Sokuu, Director Unita Water Academy.
We have Mr.
Haryan Kakak, head of subscribers, Moski Turkey.
And lastly, Mr.
Nuro, I will not bother to pronounce the other name, Head of administration of the Mayor of Dushenb, Tajestan.
So Tajestan is not here.
So P over to you.
Would like you to use your skill to make sure that we are done slightly after five to allow for the wrapper.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Chair.
And thank you very much to my panelists.
I can see only two of us.
I I hope that's it.
Then we can have a deeper conversation about this issue.
I think to just frame why we are talking about the UN Water conference, and I think my colleague Osa give some remarks about this.
We are in a very exciting moment for water and sanitation, but also some gloomy news about the sector.
It is said that we will not be meeting the SDG targets for water and sanitation.
That's a very gloomy news for water and sanitation, but we are in a very exciting moment because multilateralism around water is gaining momentum.
If you remember the UN Water Conference in 2023 in New York, was a milestone for water and sanitation setting the agenda within the United Nations.
And as a result of the UN Water Conference in 2023, we now have a water envoy that is appointed by the Secretary-General.
We now have a system wide strategy on water and sanitation for the United Nations.
And now we are looking at how stakeholders like utilities can actively engage in the conference.
And this is a challenging issue.
It is not an easy issue because this mostly looks like a member states process.
And if you attend some of these meetings, you end up with three minute statements from member states.
But this is changing.
For those of you who were in Senegal in January, how many of you were in Senegal in January? In Dhaka during the preparatory meeting for the UN Water conference.
There was a dedicated one day for stakeholder engagement and during the conference itself, apart from member states statements, we had also interventions from stakeholders on the floor.
So there is great opportunity for engagement of water and sanitation service providers in this process.
I want to start by asking my panelists very simple questions around the need for engaging water and sanitation service providers in this process? What value do we add? I always insist We have one of the panelists also online, so we are not just the three of us, we have four of us.
I was saying that I have always maintained that there cannot be a UN water conference without the people who provide these services, who are the water and sanitation service providers.
But that is just me.
What is the perspective of the service providers themselves from their point of view? How do we raise the voice of utilities around these key issues as we prepare for the conference? That is one.
And within the network of GWP, how can we use G Waa as a channel for elevating the voice of utilities? But first of all, let me give the opportunity to my colleagues who are up here with me.
And I want to start with Esther.
Esther, from your own perspective, Yes.
Okay.
Let's start with her if she may not have enough time.
If you can hear us, Ebro, I just want to ask a simple question.
Ebru is from UTR.
I want to ask a simple question around how to raise the voices of utilities as we prepare for Abu Dhabi in December this year.
And how do you see the role of a in elevating the voices of utilities within this roadmap to Abu Dhabi? If you can hear us, please.
Yes.
I can hear greetings from the airport.
I'm an airport in Istanbul in a connecting flight to Boko.
It's a great privilege for me to be here in this session.
Apologies for not being there, but I'll be there for the next four days.
Altogether, we will be exploring into the opportunities to engage with more stakeholders from different sectors.
I'm representing U, UTRs Global Water Academy, and we are partnering with GPA within the framework of UM Water System.
Um, and we, of course, contribute to the capacity development initiatives for SDG six.
So when it comes to GOPA's role and the main stakeholders and the services that it presents, I believe that there is a significant gap in the voter sector for the skilled labor for the understanding among primarily the young people who actually are either about to join into the workforces, and of course, one of our main aims is to create capacities and to contribute to the capacity development initiatives for the young people to make them more engaged in different work streams of the water sector.
This is actually one of the gaps, skills gap.
And for this reason, we truly believe in the partnership with JopA and, of course, within the capacity Development Initiative of UN Water, our main aim together with our, you know, partners, co chairs, namely UNSCO, UNesa and several 42 other UN agencies, we need to concentrate in creating basically the skilled labor for the water sector.
This doesn't only go for the white colors, of course.
So we need to provide the know how and deliver and exchange the knowledge to also the middle management, to the very junior professionals, the blue colors who will actually contribute tremendously to the SDG workstreams.
Of course, one idea and one necessity, it's not only for the labor market, capacity development initiative also goes to a the public officials, the public sector, and I think there is a great room for collaborating with PA and we are looking forward to do this in Bau to speak more about SCG six, to engage with as many different stakeholders from public and private sector as possible on the road to UAA.
So for this reason, we engage with, of course, on different streams, we engage with, you know, governments, the local governments, academia, the service providers across the world through strong partnerships.
And one of these instruments and platforms is, of course, these kind of, you know, international multi stakeholder, you know, forums and summits.
But what is extremely essential to really talk about to be able to talk about the success in the SDG six is to go to the local.
So to collaborate with the local level stakeholders.
And I thank you very much.
I'm looking forward to meeting you all, and we will be talking more about water and the need for utility service providers and more capacity development in the SDG six framework in the upcoming three, four days.
And of course, I think the World Urban Forum will really pave the way for engaging, you know, the this new group of stakeholders that are experts in urban development, sustainable cities and smart environments, ecosystems.
Thank you very much and I leave the floor to you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for emphasizing the capacity development initiative and also taking your time at the airport to talk about this very important issue about capacity development.
Actually, this is going to be a big agenda because capacity development is one of the accelerators of SDG six.
As we really also prepare to review SDG six at the high level political forum in New York in July, it is going to be a big issue how we develop skilled labor for the sector, how we attract the youth, professionals joining the sector and build their capacity, but also how we strengthen the capacity of public sector officials in the delivery of these services.
But I have in front a colleagues who also are engaged in the work of utilities on a daily basis.
That is why I wanted to start with Esther, who is responsible for corporate planning and strategy development within a utility in my country, Kenya.
I wanted to ask Esther, how do you see yourself in Abu Dhabi and how can you add value to this international process on water? So thank you.
For the water utilities, I would say that we would like to be involved in all these processes and take part in the forums affecting the water sector.
Basically, like what we are doing here at Wolf, we have the issue that we need to plan together.
And we also need to partner early with the other stakeholders.
That is, the water utilities need to be involved in the planning and in partnering early with them so that we can move together forward and also through the better planning and better partnership, we ensure that we we deliver and build better for people.
Thank you.
Another question, Esther, we have Gwaa as the platform or the network for utilities and Gwapa is now developing a roadmap from Baku to Abu Dhabi in December.
It's going to be a very short roadmap, but we really want active engagement of utilities.
What do you see as the role of GWapa in this process in elevating the voice of utilities in Abu Dhabi? The main role of JoA is advocacy, and I believe this is what they've been doing all along.
And as utilities, our role is to ensure that we take part in things to do with now what we are doing, taking part in the D assembly so that this information can be consolidated by Jopper and with this information, they'll be able to do more advocacy on what the water utilities should do.
Through this, the water utilities will be involved in the sessions.
Now, thank you very much, Esther.
Let me then go to Sebastian.
Sebastian, if we just go back to the other slide, we are not up the centimeter yet.
Oh, okay.
Very good.
Sebastian is the head of Secretariat Local 2030 coalition.
He wants to tell us what this coalition is about, how they are already engaging with the Gi Wapa and how they can contribute on the road to Abu Dhabi.
Over to you, Sebastian.
Thank you, period.
Thank you for inviting me here to Gopa to all colleagues.
I don't know if many of you are familiar with what SDG localization means.
But I can tell you that to all of you as water operators, you embody it.
Because if there is something that needs a systemic approach, it's water management and you know it from your daily lives.
You need to connect with communities, with people, users, you need to connect with national policies, with regulatory framework, so also upper levels of governance, and you need to connect with many other sectors as we have said, of course, to have an integrated urban management because when you operate water, you need also connect with other services and when you have an intervention, you need also to make sure that there are no other interventions that will jeopardize what you're doing.
But also, if you look at the broader picture of water management, you have the watershed approach, you have the territorial approach, so you need to think broad, sometimes even not only beyond your city frontier and beyond your region frontier, but also beyond the very country frontier.
You have some watersheds that are transnational that cover several countries and you need to make sure that you are connecting with them if you want to see water management in an integrated perspective, which ultimately is instrumental to advance the SDG six to accelerate it.
This is what localization is.
Is to start with the local needs, embedding in local context, the global agendas and make sure that there is respect to local cultures, to local priorities, to local realities in general.
Also, one thing that I believe your water operators are very clear is that the different levels are connected.
You cannot tackle water issues if you don't start from local needs.
But you also cannot tackle them fully if you don't take into account global trends, global processes, et cetera.
This is why you are here.
I believe this is why you make the long trip to Baku because you want to connect with others, to learn from others, to be able to innovate, to also share your innovation, and to be able also to understand and analyze together, the global trends that are affecting your work, whether it is climate change, geopolitical tensions of others.
Again, this is what localization is about.
Basing global agendas on local needs and hearing the voices of all of you that are really making S digit happen on the ground.
You, together with local authorities, together with the private sector entities, together with academia sometimes, and also because you influence many other sectors, it's not only that you need to connect with other sectors.
It's also that many other sectors need you to do your job well in order to be performing well, schools, health centers, urban basic services in general, et cetera.
This is why we came up with this road to Abu Dhabi together with bopa as you were saying, is taking the debate of today's World Urban Forum to Abu Dhabi and engaging with all of you finding local solutions concretely that are transformative, local water management solutions, and that can inspire global agenda.
Because the time to have a top down approach is over.
We need a bottom up approach.
We need to scale up what exists, accelerate it if we want to have SDG six, maybe not achieved, but at least accelerated in the remaining five years and if we want to have the right approach to what's going beyond 2030.
This is what the road to WW is there with multiple workshops to connect to connect global agendas, what conference with local aspirations and realities and also to scale up local solutions that can mean an acceleration of SDG six and beyond through SDG six, all SDGs, SDGs as a whole.
Another important point and I will close with this is that It's not only about the water conference.
The water conference is the emerging tip of an ongoing process.
Today is part of this process, but it will continue afterwards.
It's very important that we connect whatever comes out of the water conference with all the agendas.
This is at this intersection.
This is where we are transformative.
This is why the road to AW will build on what we did before the road to Seville, towards the financing for Development Conference, because financing is critical for water.
We were discussing broadly not only water issues, but in a broader sense.
We were in cop 30 also road to Blen towards Cop 30 local climate solutions.
We were in the World Social Summit in Doha also discussing social policies in general, but you see that it's also connected to water management.
Of course, we are here today, continue towards the Water conference, and we will continue afterwards.
We will also have a stop at Cop 17 in Urambata on desertification to talk about water management in dry context.
You see, it's also about connecting local to global and back and connecting different agendas so that also water management can inspire financing agendas, can inspire social policy agenda and can inspire others.
This is why I think your participation today, but also beyond in the Roadwabu Dhabi is fundamental is crucial and I'm very much looking forward.
I don't know if we have a solution from Baku, the one that we did for today.
No, we don't have it with us.
Okay.
But we can distribute it afterwards so that you can see what it can look like at the end, there will be a report on the solutions that is shared with the negotiators.
We did it for other agendas before and that inspire their intergovernmental negotiations to ultimately inspire the outcome document and bring together an informal alliance that will take it to the implementation phase because what a conference is to Have an agreement on the agenda, the outcome document, we call it.
This is like say a policy, but then you need to implement it.
To implement it, we need all of you to come together and have support also from others to accelerate implementation.
Thank you very much and looking forward to share with all of you.
No, thank you very much, Sebastian.
I will not endeavor to summarize your very nice points.
But now we know what SDG localization is about.
This is very important.
You could be working on something for years, and then you realize your audience are not aware.
Of SDG localization.
Very critical role for water service providers in SDG localization.
In fact, everything you do is about localizing SDGs at the local level, and that is where SDGs will be achieved.
Let me open up the floor so that we have some engagement with the audience.
So two questions.
Don't ask me, you ask them two questions, please.
Just one there.
Any other Let's see.
Okay.
Let's, we're good.
All right.
Two questions.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
My name is Mirabel Numbi from Cameroon, from Azek Young Entrepreneurs in Cameroon.
My question goes to Mr.
Sebastian because I'm interested in local.
We deal mostly with grassroots, going to the grassroots.
I know what it took us to be in Baku.
Yes.
As a local NGO, a local organization.
So I want to know how can we bridge the gap between you spoke of bottom top, and that is what I'm really interested in.
So how can we bridge that gap? Because the local people don't have this opportunity to be here.
I know what it took us to be here.
We have fought to be here because we want the voices of the local people to be heard.
How can this approach that you're localizing the water project because the people that really need this project, they are in the local areas, but don't have access to for these projects.
So how can we really breach this how can we breach the top bottom approach and how can we access them? Because even they know about it, can they access such conferences to be here? Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I didn't want to interrupt you because of the grassroot voice, which is very critical.
Let's have the second question there.
Good afternoon.
I'm Musar from the city of Durban.
The water utilities are facing a very challenging times and one of them is to deal with the increasing cost of producing drinkable water or potable water within the context of climate change, and then the community is struggling between the hard base and the rock in terms of being able to pay for the services we provide.
How do we deal with that within the social understanding that access to water is life? Thank you.
Sebastian, you can start and then Esa can contribute.
Thank you.
Yes.
On the first question, thank you very much.
Indeed, the Exactly what you describe very concretely is why the local 2030 coalition, which secretat I'm heading was created within the UN, the United Nations reform.
The idea was to see how we can create a space of constant dialogue and joint work between local grassroots organizations and United Nations system because the member states, the reference of the UN and intergovernmental processes as the name indicates, are member states.
For Cameroon, it's the government of Cameroon.
But we need to make sure also in many many governments are recognizing the need and the United Nations, of course, to make sure that this reflects also, as you were saying, this bottom up approach and the voices of the local.
This is why we were created, and this is why we came up with the road to approach road to Abu Dhabi in this case, to have local workshops.
For instance, your organizations could lead say, we want to do one to hear the voices of the users, we represent the young entrepreneurs that we represent and we would like this, the solutions that will come up and the recommendations that will come out of the workshop.
We want it to be part of the report that will be shared with the negotiators so that they can see it and that they can be inspired by it, then we cannot make we cannot be absolutely 100% sure that they will reflect what exactly your constituency is saying in the outcome document, but it's a way of making advocacy inscy and then the other complimentary ways that we are doing is that we mobilize member states in informal goodwill alliances where they can be champions within the intergovernmental negotiations pushing for other negotiators to acknowledge the report, to acknowledge local voices to say it quickly.
This worked very well for the financing for Development Conference in Cevi.
For instance, in CV we launched the report.
Of course, it was shared way before with the negotiators because the outcome document is not done on the spot, it's negotiated before and so you need to make sure that you permeate into this negotiation way before.
But then on the spot, we launched the report to say in a good manner, put pressure, show that the local aspect, local voices are very important.
And so we launched it in a big event, very visible, et cetera, and we launched For Savi, for the Finance for Development Conference, it was the CV platform for action on localizing finance.
And we launched it with Spain with OECD as local T starchy coalition UN habitat.
And the idea is to bring together member states, so the national governments that recognize that they need to localize finance, to make more finance available for local stakeholders, say rapidly.
Cameroon is one of the countries that expressed interest.
They were in a meeting that we had in New York during the Finance for Development We expressed interest in joining.
This means that each year they will report if they join, if it materializes, they will report back and saying, how do we integrate in Cameroon, but it is the case, South Africa, for instance, is part and others.
How do we integrate these local voices when we go to the global stage? I don't want to be too long, but I want it to be very concrete afterwards.
Sorry.
No, it's relevant to what we are discussing, local voices and how to to get to Abu Dhabi, how to get to Abu Dhabi and make meaningful impact on the content of the deliberations in Abu Dhabi.
It's not just appearing in the conference, it's also influencing the content of what comes out of that conference.
1 minute, Esther, and then we can close.
So I'll pick from where he left that access to water is life and we agree that.
I believe everyone in this room agrees with that.
Currently, according to reports, we still have 2.5 billion people lacking access to safe water.
So as water utilities, what do we need so that we can raise the voice of the utilities towards the conference in Abu Dhabi.
One of the things is a Currently, water utilities, sometimes we may not speak in one voice, so we need to consolidate our voices and have one consolidated report.
That's with these reports, Do the advocacy at Abu Dhabi will be very easy specifically for Dropper.
That is, we need to speak in one voice.
Also, we need to package our challenges.
I believe that most water utilities usually have the same or similar challenges, we need to package these challenges so that we can sharpen and also sharpen the advocacy.
Also we need to make commitments that are trackable.
To ensure that we have a KPI that is general to all the water utilities world doing.
Thank you.
Thank you very much and that is our time.
Let me thank the panelists very much for the discussion.
I think we have really exhausted the topic and also to you for very active engagement.
Let me hand it back to the chair.
I think we have 5 minutes.
I was given the leeway to either skip the timeter or we can do the timeter but the chair has 5 minutes to close if we are still ending at five.
Okay.
Good.
Then let's go with the Mentimeter.
Great.
I think so.
We can leave.
We have agreement in the room to go over by 15 minutes.
We had a little bit of delay with the opening.
We would appreciate everybody if they could stay also online.
We would like to get some inputs from you through the timeter.
We want to make the assembly as inclusive as possible in terms of gathering voices.
Let's take a few minutes for the timeter and then we will close.
Many thanks, chair.
Hello? Yeah.
Okay.
We can scan.
I can see already 16 people online.
Please scan, and then we can start with the questions.
Yeah.
Great.
How can you contribute to OAS Water action agenda, the pledge that my colleague Osa presented? This was a pledge that was presented in New York in 2023 and we've been tracking progress of nurturing 100 water operators partnerships by 2030.
Yeah.
Great.
You can see for yourselves sharing knowledge and expertise is very critical.
Number two, who is pushing number two? Funding mobilization is very critical also for this water action anyway.
Yeah.
Good.
Okay.
We can go to the next.
So do you have a local solution to contribute to the local 2030 roads to UAE process? The Local 2030 that Sebastian presented.
What are the local solutions? We have swimability, the swimmable cities.
And I know that there is an event here, so I hope that we carried our swimming kits.
Yes, this is going to be very exciting.
Analysis of needs of utilities and people, bringing sanitation to the main stage of the conference, development and deployment of ethical AI to document good innovations, use of nature based solutions, community led climate resilient hubs, institutionalizing local voices, water users associations, reaching out to potential partners, more collaborations, partnerships with local municipalities, community engagement, AI innovation, youth inclusion, mobilizing local communities, sensitizing political leaders, capacity building in utilities, good answers.
These are local solutions that will contribute to the local 2030 roadmap.
Next, So what message needs to be heard and acted upon at the UN Water Conference in 2026 and beyond? What message needs to be heard? Some key message that you want to take to Abu Dhabi.
Let's go.
We have 40 of us.
Partnership, access to potable water is life, improve sanitation is dignity, sanitation integrated with housing, very, very critical for the Baku call to action.
This is something that we really need to look at as water and sanitation service providers.
How do we engage with other sectors such as housing? You remember what Sebastian said, If you're talking about integrated approaches, you need to be ready to think broadly beyond your sector.
So housing becomes a very important component and how to interact with housing and human settlements experts.
Getting funding for countries, empowering utilities to invest in the last mile connections, recognizing whoops in water supply delivery, use of low cost digital and AI solutions, finance, utilities are key in making the transformation.
Water scarcity is increasing almost everywhere.
The need is on the ground.
We need to meet with the people on the ground.
Very important.
Local solutions, communicating in relatable language, E swimability, prioritizing service delivery in poor areas, technology transfer, valuing water, critical monitoring, integrated solutions, very good answers, but we are still 24 out of 40.
Okay.
I think we have done well.
This is the end of the presentation and thank you for the opportunity.
Over to you, chair.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, P, for that and another hand clap to our panelists, including the one who was at the airport.
We appreciate the commitment to this session.
We are drawing to a close and as we do so, I think we all have some key lessons that we have learned, but also some key takeaways that we are going to go with into the week and also beyond.
I would like to invite Author to come and say a few words as we draw to a close.
Thank you.
Thank you very much to the chair and I would like to give her a round of applause as I think this would be the opportunity to do so.
I was in touch with our chair half an hour into the service provider segment rushing through traffic and we really appreciate your leadership and the way you've taken us forward in this meeting.
We will leave the closing to the chair of the assembly.
I just wanted to highlight that we are, of course, only at the beginning of our days here in Baku together and I hope everybody is feeling mobilized, inspired.
We're talking about a lot of roadmaps.
I think we're talking about also what is practical in the roadmaps.
Let's really think use our time strategically here at the World Urban Forum.
Many events and from the Secretariat side, we're not going to share now here the slides and information on all the events.
We're using several WhatsApp groups.
I encourage everybody to download the Wolf app and we've also curated the water and sanitation events that are at Wolf.
At the same time, we talked a lot here about the nexus between different work streams, urban and water.
Don't only go to water and sanitation events, do go into other events as well and raise your voices there.
I wanted to highlight apart from different events that you will see.
There are morning caucuses, there is a gender caucus, there is geographical groupings, and we will be sending out emails overnight to make it visible and clear where you might find a space.
You may find a space with the women's caucus at the World Urban Forum.
You might find a space with the Africa grouping, perhaps with the youth grouping, professionals.
There's different roundtables and we've tried to embed where we can speakers as well.
I just wanted to share that there.
And the last piece of information from the Secretariat is that we're really pleased to be able to offer together with our national local host here, a field visit tomorrow to a wastewater plant.
This slide is up here and if you have If you're one of our members as part of Jopa that are being already on the WhatsApp, you will have received this information.
If this is new to you and you're in the room and you want to sign up, please go see Ann before you leave.
We will be leaving right after the opening ceremony of the World Urban Forum tomorrow.
I think this will be a really good way of exploring a little bit more here in Baku beyond what we're of course going to see in the meetings.
Ann is there and the sign up sheet.
With that, all I can say is, thank you so much.
I think we're in a really dynamic phase in the global Alliance.
I cannot see everybody online, but I can feel the sense that we're really a big movement and I'm going into the World Urban Forum really looking forward to engaging with all of you and to really raise the voices and the points that we've been discussing here.
Over to you, Chair.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Osa.
Thank you, A Osa for leading us through with those words I think after a hard day's work and after a very interesting group session, you would definitely need to hear some highlights from the group work.
I'll just mention them not in detail as they are, but in the group, there was discussion of involving more utilities in the development of public policies and government programs to create cross sector collaboration and that discussion goes on and they give an example of odia.
Then there is the national level master plans, more and tighter follow up and monitoring mechanisms.
WPs should not just stop at the two partners involved, but include buy in and advocacy.
We need to focus more on vulnerable groups, engage with communities, remembering women and youth, and empower them to be part and solely on these services and assets.
There was a debate on AI and digitalization.
As not expensive and looking at having low cost digitalization in future and moving from analog and embracing change.
Advocacy is being mentioned several times.
Resource mobilization is crucial.
Funds are decreasing, hence the renewed importance of advocacy.
But to that, I also add that governments need to take deliberate effort to free up money for the water and sanitation sector.
That's what came out from your groups.
Please clap for yourselves.
There's a lot that we have said today.
I'll take you back to our buzzwords and I want to see if you're still with me.
R is I love you.
I is for integration.
Then we had another letter F for focus O On people, we added another A not alignment, and I added a P partnership.
I said it's with each other by one another.
This class is really difficult.
We repeat it, A, P one with each other.
Give yourselves a hand clap.
A lot has been said and we all agree that we still have a lot of work to do.
During the break, I had a small discussion with someone from Palestine and the need for water operator partnerships to go into areas that are facing a lot of challenges across the world.
As chair of the assembly, I will still reemphasize that utilities are ready to be part of this transformation.
So are all service providers as was highlighted in the session before this one.
Adequate housing, water security, sanitation, and inclusive water development must, and I must re emphasize that must advance together.
Allow me to conclude with the words of Nelson Mandela.
It always seems impossible until it is done.
It always seems impossible until it is done.
Let us therefore move from dialogue to delivery together.
We wish you all the best in the Wolf in the coming days ahead.
God bless you all.
Thank you very much.
We will quickly step forward for a group photo.
Quickly step forward for a photo.
I'll also ask Flavia to bring out something here very fast, which we hand over to OSA and the team from UN Habitat quickly.
The UN Habitat team will ask you to come and join all the UN Habitat team that we have present who have been working behind the scenes, all of us to the front for the family photo.
Online people put on your cameras.