Launching the Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector Resilience Index (HLPF Side Event)

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, welcome and thank you for joining us today to launch the Global Wash Sector Resilience Index.
My name is Sam Morton.
It's my pleasure to moderate today's session.
It's a session that could not be more timely because as we all know, as we all experience, hardly a week goes by without news of another climate related event, conflict, example of displacement, disease outbreak, or economic pressure, all of which place unprecedented strain on water, sanitation, and hygiene systems around the world.
What does that look like in practice? It means a very practical strain on public health, on communities livelihoods, on people's dignity, and ultimately the social cohesion that keeps countries strong and productive.
The figures before us are almost too large to comprehend.
More than 2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water, more than 3 billion people lack safely managed sanitation, nearly 2 billion people lack basic hygiene services.
Behind each of these incredible figures are children, girls, mothers, people living with disabilities, inevitably, the most vulnerable.
Yet the challenge before us is not simply one of access.
Increasingly, it's a challenge of resilience.
How do we ensure that wash systems continue to function when confronted by droughts, floods, conflict, and economic shock? How do we move then from responding to crises towards anticipating and preventing them? That's the central question that brings us together.
A key part of the answer to that question is the focus of our discussion today, the global Wash Sector resilience Index.
It's more than a measurement tool.
It provides governments, development partners, and investors with an evidence base to better understand vulnerabilities, prioritize investments, and strengthen resilient wash systems before crises occur.
Today's discussion is therefore not simply about data, but how we use that data, how resilience metrics inform policy, how evidence guides sustainable investments, and how partnerships can translate analysis into action for communities most at risk.
To kick off our discussion, I'm delighted to welcome our first speaker, His Excellency, Ambassador doctor Abdul Aziz, Al Waseil permanent representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations.
Saudi Arabia's leadership in ensuring continuity of wash services in the face of external shocks is something from which we can all learn.
Your Excellency.
Thank you, Madam Moderator, and good afternoon everyone, Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
It is my pleasure to welcome you to this important event marking the launch of the Global Watch Sector Resilience Index.
Allow me first to express my sincere appreciation to UNICEF and to its partners for convening this timely event and for their leadership in developing this important initiative.
We gather today at a time when water systems across the world are facing increasingly complex and interconnected challenges.
Climate change, water scarcity, extreme weather events, conflict and humanitarian crises continue to place growing pressure on essential services and underscore the need to strengthen their resilience.
These realities remind us that achieving sustainable development goal six is no longer solely about expanding access to water and sanitation services.
It is equally important ensuring that these systems remain reliable, adaptable, and capable of withstanding future shocks.
For the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, water security and the resilience of water systems are strategic national priorities.
Guided by Saudiviion 2030, the Kingdom has adopted a comprehensive approach that combines long term planning, technological innovation, sustainable water resources management, and continued investment in resilience infrastructures.
As one of the world's most water scarce countries, Saudi Arabia has learned that resilience is not determined by the absence of challenges, but by ability to anticipate risks, adapt to change, and ensure the continuity of essential services.
In this regard, we welcome the launch of the global W Sector resilience Index.
Evidence based tools such as this can help governments strengthen planning, identify vulnerabilities, prioritize investments, and promote more resilience and sustainable water systems.
At the same time, building resilience is a shared responsibility.
It requires stronger international cooperation, effective partnerships, knowledge exchange, innovation, and sustained investments to ensure that no country is left behind in addressing today's water related challenges.
As we look ahead to the 20 26th United Nations Water Conference, today's discussion provides a valuable opportunity to advance a more integrated and forward looking approach that places resilience at the heart of global efforts to achieve water security and sustainable development.
I congratulate UNICEF and all its partners on this important initiative and I wish you all a productive and successful discussion.
Thank you.
Thank you, Your Excellency, and I think you have to leave, but thank you very much for your time.
Now I'd like to invite our second speaker, Mr.
Kamal Kusure special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Relief and Reduction, for his remarks framing the broader UN prevention agenda.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Excellency, colleagues and friends.
It's really my pleasure to join UNICEF and its partners at the launch of the Global Wash Sector Resilience Index.
It's a very important and timely contribution to the broader resilience agenda.
The resilient water sanitation and hygiene systems are essential for human well being and dignity.
When they fail, the impacts do not stay just in wash sector, they affect everything.
They affect health, they affect education, they affect food security, they affect livelihoods, they affect social stability, and they erode hard won development gains.
More than 11 years since the adoption of Sendai Framework, we've made great progress in saving lives, but all the other indicators of Sendai Framework in terms of number of people affected by disastrous economic impacts, in terms of infrastructure disruptions, we've made no progress and that cannot be achieved unless we achieve resilience in wash sector.
I think this is really a fundamental critical infrastructure service to societies.
It's a systemic thing which really needs to be built in a manner that it is resilient to all kinds of shocks.
In that context, the index which is being launched today is an important contribution.
It will reflect a risk based approach, risk informed approach, which is at the heart of Sendai Framework as well.
It means that we understand where hazards occur, how they affect wash systems, who is exposed to them, how those wash systems are vulnerable.
But as the moderator just said, we don't just stop at measuring the resilience, but we also begin to see what would it take to enhance resilience by taking practical measures if you are in a floodplain, what kind of measures you need to take to ensure that wash systems are not affected by floods, similarly in drought prone areas, other hazards, as well as other kinds of shocks that can occur.
So I really hope that when we launch this index, it triggers a whole series of actions at the ground level, practical things which help us build resilience into watch systems.
At UNDRR, we will be watching very closely, working very closely with our partners in taking this to the ground and achieving resilience for all.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
It's now my pleasure to welcome Mr.
Everest Quasi Klan, the Director of Global Wash Practice at UNICEF to share the presentation on the Global Wash Sector resilience Index.
Thank you very much, moderator.
First of all, I just want to thank excellencies and partners who are here today for this event, and also thank all the partners who contribute strongly to make this index tool a reality.
But thank you and particularly the International Institute of Environmental Research in Stockholm who support the whole study as well.
So I need to go on the slide one by one.
The first point I want to make, and then the ambassador already made this point very clearly, we are on an age of the crisis, multi crisis where we have seen rising global fragility everywhere up to the estimation is that by 2050, more than 4 billion people might be in a fragile context, making a global shift to instability and also fragility.
In the same time, those crises that we are living in, they are acquire more interconnected, that are more frequent and also driven by climate change, conflict, and economic volatility that we have seen also.
Those many in parts are related to how the savings are provided to the population, particularly in the water and sanitation system, which are in the threat in the country itself and also through the transport system as well.
So there's a need to, um, shift the game, not the traditional way that we are working, but also do things totally differently.
First of all, as the impact, the children are the most the hardest hit when we have multi crisis, including children who are affected by humanitarian condition in different places.
Over 130 million people need humanitarian aid today, half of them are in a displaced situation.
And also face different vulnerability.
The mortality risk from wash failure is very high.
When the crisis hit, the wash is the first to become a pawn and then the last to go and children under five are quite affected and the modality in some of the situation are very high due to those crises that we are facing as well.
This also impair the children's well being and also in terms of nutrition, education, protection, as well as, you know, the impact that is due to economic, eco development and also the children's development as well.
So there's a need to have a better investment in terms of resilience, how we sustain the service, water and sanitation service, to make sure that we reduce those kind of vulnerability on the children.
So In addition to the water and sanitation system, which was totally in track in the beginning, like the majority will say, 2.2 billion people are not having access to water and sanitation.
If you want to change the ball game, I was doing the calculation this morning.
Every year we are adding more or less 93 million people who are having access basically compared to 2 billion who need to have access.
The gap is huge, is more or less 20 times.
So the system is already vulnerable, but if you are adding more vulnerability due to many other factor, we are stretching much the whole system, and this is due to many factors.
The first one is financing, which creates a lot of inequality, not only on the household, but also on the government and the public sector side.
The second one is a challenge that we face related to the governance of the country.
When we are doing this study, we had been a deep dive in some of the country like DSA Congo, where we have seen issue like governance affecting the vulnerability for the children, for example.
Then how we also have a new way of approaching the change that we want to make a different way.
So in the sector, if you want to maintain the fact that we are having 98 million people every year having additional access to water services to reduce the gap, we need to make sure that those people who have today continue having those systems in the future.
So it's very important of that.
If you don't do that, we are going to create more gap for the sector to fill in the future.
So there's a need to have a systematic shift for the prevention and move the sector from reactive to the crisis to more preventing and long term thinking as well.
We need to invest in the preparedness and response and also build more resilience system that benefit more population.
Gradually also have integration of resilience in what we do all over the place.
Why we the partners together, we thought that the global water sanitation resilience index is very important, basically.
I'm very glad that the ambassador on that later on is more comprehensive resilient measurement that help most of the country to make the decision based on many factor that include the great hazard exposure of vulnerability ecosystem, and also infrastructure of the community.
This will also create a ed base for decision making at the government level and advocate for better investment for the country in the sector and also bridging the data gap and also some of the actions.
So How it works is more risk based approach like you hear already and the systemic way of addressing each of the components of the vulnerability.
D has also some of the factor, like I said before, on the governance issue, corruption, policy reform influencing the decision, as well as having more realistic resilience acceptance issue that was discussion, for example, how do we maintain service viability when we have the crisis also.
So there's a clear way of doing that.
You see, on the table that the risk dimension in terms of hazard, exposure, availability has been assessed, as well as some of the components related to ecosystem infrastructure and community as well.
There's a governance issue that is adding up, that we have identified later on, that is a key component that maintain the system working as well.
So just to give you some of the example on some of the specific area.
If you talk about some of the risk dimension related to hazard in the ecosystem, you have some of the natural hazard that affecting most of the country and population.
In terms of infrastructure, the shock and also the market stability that go with that.
And then in terms of governance, you have issue like general infrastructure management.
Operation management will be one of the factor that we assessed in those dimension as well for the vulnerability.
In terms of the community community and also in terms of exposure, we have issue like half of the population pollution issue that you need to assess and many other factor as well.
So this analysis gives us some of the dimension and the result that you can see that, uh, in this map, which is quite colorful.
You can see that where you have the risk very high, those are the country where we know that there are more resilience, they have a system in place to address water and sanitation issue.
We have seen those country among the high income countries totally show where was resilience are do robust and the government governance is already in place.
When you have a less dark color is where the impact is more high.
We have seen that in most of the African countries, a little bit in Asia, they are more affected by those situation.
The system are not very robust there and the government is very slow in those country as well.
Just to give you an example, um, we have done a analysis and put in some of the data not only on climate hazard side, but also for the country who don't have access to water and sanitation service or where the level of access is lower than 50%.
B has a good correlation with the map that we are having now.
It means that the governance issues play a huge role in driving the accesses most of the countries as well.
So this one is very difficult to see.
But again, we have done a analysis to see if there might be a correlation between the global water and sanitation risk and death compared to the informed risk and death that is developed by European in some of the country.
We have seen no correlation at.
We've seen the negative correlation, meaning that if the system is quite robust, Um, your risk index will be very low.
So this is what we have seen that having a better system well managed in most of the developed country, reduce the risk that, you know, most of the country are facing.
We have done the same analysis on what UNICEF Children climate index is about, and we have also this totally negative trend in terms of correlation because if you have a risk a better system working with Google governance, you have totally those system are less affected by a climate related issues as well.
So, um, We analyze what are some of the key drivers basically make the resilience stronger in a different contexts.
One of the area we look at more closely as a driver is a universal access to wash.
How we can give more priority for equitable access to water and sanitation agent as a foundation of the resilience.
I was saying Monday and Tuesday during my speech here is we usually use water and sanitation service as outcome, but it has to be a foundation.
Right? You know, you see in most of the community where every building is in place is where they put the pipe.
Basically, it would supply the community.
It should be other way around, and that will create a system that make the system working better, and then we can develop a better infrastructure to move the setter forward.
The second pillar is more the strengthening of the governance system.
This has to enhance the policy, regulation in the country, have a better monitoring system and also a good framework to build resilience in the country.
Then the third component is risk informed integrated approach.
How we can adopt a new strategy addressing multiple crises and multiple hazards integrating also humanitarian development, inside the way that we program our intervention.
The last pieces of key driver related to the coordinated investment and action, how we sustain investment and also operation and maintenance for the system through along the whole process of intervention.
So I talked a lot about the target.
Now I want to talk about the finance and many people are talking about the finance.
The need for the sector is very huge.
I was talking earlier on in terms of if you want basically to reduce the 2.2 billion who don't have assets, you need to make sure that we multiply by more or less 19.
Here the sector basically will be needing more than 114 billion.
Every year to make sure that we have investment to address water and sanitation issue.
But those are some of the costs that are related to water.
We need to add some of the component related to resilience on those issue as well.
The cost effectiveness of resilience is one of the key shift needs to happen.
We need to invest in the resilience of the system to make sure that the service with span many other crises in the future as well.
So to close the financing gap is one of the area and everyone is talking about domestic resource mobilization, which is also very important, but also the fund that exists in most of the country, how do we make them more efficient so that they can basically address resilience issue as well.
And the strategic investment and partnership, we need to build more partnership, leveraging what the partners are doing already that can demonstrate a big scale, not reinverting the way.
So some of the direction of that might be very important.
Some of the takeaway very quickly.
This one is more How do we shift the whole game? Rising a water system, build stronger society and assure sustainable development and outcome for the community.
This is one of the takeaways.
The second one is the value of the global water and sanitation sector risk and this tool help to understand the risk, prioritize action, and also guide strategic investment in the future.
Then the third takeaway is a call of action to have more proactive intervention in different ways, whenever we are developing the system.
Then the last one is now, we need to act now, not tomorrow, but start acting now to make sure that those investments that you are working in water and sanitation become more resilient.
Thank you very much.
I give back the floor to the moderator.
Thank you for your attention.
All right.
We got that message loud and clear action now.
As we wait for the first counselor to come from Senegal, perhaps we'll go to our panel and I am pleased to introduce them to you.
Today's panel is themed around measuring resilience to accelerating action.
Our three panelists today are doctor Abdul Aziz Al Katani Director General from the Department of Water Resource Studies and Modeling, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Thank you for joining us.
Mr.
Moatwa Sitali, the acting CEO of Sanitation and Water All, and miss Lana Wakit, the representative for UNICEF in the Gulf Area Office.
The first question I would like to ask is around risk informed planning and governance, why resilience is so important and how resilience metrics can inform planning and policy decisions.
The question is, why is resilience so important for your country or your organization? How can tools such as the Global Wash Sector Resilience Index help governments move from reactive approaches towards more risk informed and resilience planning? What other actions are key for governments? Doctor Abdu Aziz, if I can start with you.
Thank you, Madam Moderator.
For Saudi Arabia, resilience is not a choice, it's the foundation of water sector.
As one of the world's most water scarce countries, we have learned that resilience must be designed into the system long time ago before a crisis occurs.
Over the past decade, we have transformed our water sector by diversifying water sources through desalination, expanding treated wastewater use, strengthening strategic storage, modernizing transmission networks, and introducing integrated sector governance.
At the same time, we have invested heavily in digital monitoring, water quality management, emergency readiness and risk informed planning.
One of our strongest demonstration of resilience is the annual HTC.
Every year, we provide safe water and sanitation surfaces for millions of pilgramage within a very short period under challenging climate conditions.
This requires multiple institution operating as one integrated system.
With redundancy, real time monitoring, contingency planning, and rapid response capabilities.
It reminds us that resilience is as much about governance and coordination as it's about infrastructure.
This is why we welcome the launch of the global was sector resilience index.
It reflects an important evolution from measuring.
As alone to assisting whether systems can continue delivering services under stress.
This is exactly the direction countries need to move toward.
As we prepare for the 11th for World Forum in R 2027 and UN 2026 conference this year, resilience will be one of the cross cutting priorities across our thematic regional and political processes.
Our objective is to help shift the global conversation from reacting to crisis toward building systems that anticipate, absorb, adopt, and recover.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Lana, could I turn to you next? Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
If we look at the resilience agenda and I just come back from the ISDB annual meeting where they launched their three facility that focuses on response recovery as well as resilience, we can see that there is basically a big focus and shift because specifically for water, security is no longer a service delivery issue.
It's national resilience, public health, economic and social stability.
We're looking at really far reaching impact and complex issues that are also multi sectoral.
In the Gulf, this is very real and GCC countries operate in one of the world's most water scarce regions, as my colleague just mentioned, with high dependence on desalination, rising demand, climate pressures, heat stress, and limited natural freshwater resources.
This means that wash systems must not only expand access, but also remain under Shock whether climate related, economic, operational, or humanitarian.
This index provides governments with very good evidence base to see where risks are concentrated, where systems are vulnerable and where investments will have the highest impact.
We're talking about investments not only domestically, but globally because we're talking about the GCC countries who are also supporting many countries not only financially, but also through south to south and triangular cooperation.
From the UNICEF perspectives, there are three priorities.
To use data to guide policy and investment, and this is really key.
That's really a very much needed tool to help identify gaps and link them to water strategies also as well as investments.
Second, invest in systems, not only infrastructure.
This means strengthening governance, regulations, maintenance, financing models, emergency preparedness.
I can think of many contexts where we can see now how the member states in the GCC are supporting within the same direction.
Third, connect the domestic innovation of what the GCC member states are doing in their regions with the global solidarity model.
Again, I've mentioned that they're investing in desalination, reuse digital water management, AI enabled monitoring, climate smart infrastructure and we can see a lot of exchange with other member states for support.
I think we also, um are working with the different member states to prepare for key upcoming events, the UAE upcoming water conference is really important, and we have delegates also from UAE to speak to that.
Our also partners in Qatar, they really also demonstrated how development cooperation can be holistic.
They really invested heavily in education, but made sure that access to learning is also recognized the child needs safe and enabling environment, including water availability, sanitation, hygiene, dignity in schools.
This also speaks to a multi sectoral approach that we and our partners in the GCC are really investing in.
I'm sure that their presence here, they will also speak to the systems that they have.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr.
Sitale over to you, please.
Thank you very much.
Good afternoon.
First of all, I'd like to congratulate UNICEF for putting together this really timely index.
As the previous speakers have mentioned, we live in a world where crisis are multiplying and they are overlapping almost everywhere.
But I think what we saw also from the presentation that Everest made is that there are countries which are better prepared than others.
And I think this type of preparedness is needed across the board because when it comes to sustainable development goals, it's no one left behind.
It's universal access and the numbers are huge in terms of what needs to be achieved.
Sanitation and water for all is a global partnership of more than 500 institutions and nearly 100 among these are governments and most of those governments are likely to fall in the bracket that Esa pointed out where this challenge is actually quite significant.
For sanitation and water for all, resilience is fundamental because water and sanitation are not simply services.
They are the foundation of healthy societies, resilient economies, and sustainable development.
When water and sanitation systems fail, the impacts extend far beyond the sector itself.
They affect public health, food security, education, gender, and as we heard, that list is quite exhaustive.
Now, we do work a lot with ministers in sanitation and water for all.
We work with political leaders, heads of state, and ministers.
The things that they care for are things that I believe you also care for, and they comprise about three ess.
One is speed, of how we're going to achieve this huge number of services that need to be delivered? Can we do it fast enough? Speed is one of the issues and then scale is another.
Can we bring these services to as many people as possible? Sustainability is another one.
Can these services last once they are delivered? Resilientient cuts across all those three things.
It helps you to achieve sustainability, helps you to get to have these services as many people as possible.
Once you think about resilience, you would then be protecting the services that you have.
To do that, you need systems, which is why I think the governance angle that was mentioned in the presentation is very important because you can't just look at infrastructure.
You also need to look at the policies and the systems that make sure that these services are in place.
To finalize, I would like to bring you back to COVID.
When COVID hit, we in sanitation and water for all together with UNICEF and others, brought together a number of ministers.
I remember one of the ministers in that room saying, What if this doesn't go away soon enough? Um, so how do we make sure that we're able to have the investment, we have the policies that respond to this, and we're able to have the services that actually last.
We were talking at the time about building back better.
But I think the issue is not about building back better, it's about building forward better.
How can we make sure that with resilience, we're actually putting in systems that actually can stand the test of time, ensure that our investments are protected, and they protect us from the regression risk, which we face at the moment because with the SDGs, there's a lot of progress also that has happened and this progress can be washed away if we do not have resilient systems in place.
We need to avoid building back the same.
But in order for us to be able to move forward, we need to be building forward better.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr.
Sati.
Now, I am pleased to say that we have been joined by doctor Mohammed Ayata, the first counselor of the Minister of hydraulic and sanitation from Senegal.
I'm going to suggest, if it is okay, that we hear from you now and then we'll come back to the second round of questions for the panel.
We know that Senegal is a country that has taken an integrated approach to resilience response and we very much look forward to hearing about that.
Thank you, moderator.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to talk on behalf of Senegal as also chairp of the 26 UN Water Conference for Senegal.
Allow me to begin by expressing Senegal's sincere appreciation to UNICEF and all the partner who have contributed to the development of the global wash sector resilience Index.
This initiative comes at the right time.
It's provide country with practical tools to better understand their vulnerabilities, strengthen, decision making, and guide investment where resilience is most needed.
For Senegal, resilience is becoming a guiding principle across our entire water agenda.
As co host of the 26th UN Water Conference, together with the United Arab Emirates, we believe that the resilience of water systems must become an integral part of the broader conversations on water security, climate adaptation, and sustainable development.
Recent crises have remind us that resilience infrastructure alone is not enough.
Resilience water also depend on strong institutions, reliable information, sustainable financing, and effective governance.
They require us to anticipate risks rather than simplify response to emergencies.
This is the approach Destingal has chosen.
Through our National, our National Water Security compact that we launched during the spring meeting of the World Bank, we are embedded resilience across the entire water cycle from protecting water resources and expanding access to drinking water and sanitation to improving water governance, mobilizing investment, and strengthening climate adaptation, and enabling environment attracting fund.
At the same time, the blue fund that Senegal is developing seeks to create a financing mechanism capable of supporting long term investments in water security and resilience.
Our ambition is to better connect climate finance, development finance, and water investment while ensuring that the most vulnerable communities are not left behind.
We see these initiatives not as olitic program, but as complementary building blocks of the more resilient water feature.
The global Wash Connect Sector resilience Index can play an important role in this journey.
It can help countries establish baselines, monitor progress, prioritize investment accountability.
More importantly, it can help create a common language among government development partners and financial expertise.
Closing, dear colleagues, the 26th Eman Water Conference offers a unique opportunity to place resilience at the center of the global water agenda not only as a response to climate change, a driver for sustainable development goals.
Senegal remains committed to working with UNICEF and all partners to ensuring that resilience become a shared ambition supported by strong institutions, better financing, and concrete action.
We look forward to welcoming you And all this network for the 26 UN what a conference that Senegal is co hosting with the United Arab Emirate in Abu Dhabi in December 26th.
I thank you.
Thank you very much.
Let us return to round two of our panel.
The second question today focuses on financing partnerships and action.
Understanding risk is only the first step.
The larger challenge is how we convert that evidence into action.
We've heard that resilient systems require long term investment, stronger institutions, and new or strengthened partnerships.
Let me ask the panelists, what can the international community and partners do to make the shift from fragmented projects and reactive approaches to resilient wash systems at scale? What new partnerships or financing models do we need? What role should your institution and play in making it happen.
Maybe you're already doing it.
It would be great to hear.
Mr.
Sitale, let me start this time with you.
Thank you.
I would like to start by stating that for sanitation and water for all, strengthening resilience is not one objective among many.
It is the foundation for achieving SDG six.
Because like I was mentioning earlier, the regression risk is high.
If you're not planning and incorporating these vulnerabilities and the risks that are there because you could make progress and then you have, although that progress washed away, if you've not planned for how you're going to bounce back.
Um, so for us, this is not one objective.
Among many, it is the foundation for achieving SDG six and for supporting countries to build more resilient, inclusive and sustainable societies.
Now, this is a fundamental question that you've just asked moderator regarding the different partnerships, financing models, and also what we're doing as a partnership.
As a partnership, we're focusing a lot on what kind of information and evidence is provided to decisions, the political decision makers so that they could be making the right decisions in terms of institutions, policies, capacities, where to place that capacity, and be able to ensure that even the last, even the communities that do not have the services actually are provided the services, but they also have the sufficient mechanisms to bounce back in the case of problems.
One is, how do we get this evidence to the right decision makers so they could create the right partnerships, the ministries of finance, the ministries responsible for economy, sometimes it's the same as the Minister of Finance.
We work in that area and I think this is an important area that needs to continue to have focus.
We also work with heads of state because these disasters when they occur, they actually affect all these services and sectors that we talked about.
A Arista mentioned, water is called upon first and it is the last one to So we cannot leave this issue out of the table of the head of state, out of the table of the head of government as they make these decisions.
It is important that they also take into consideration how water and sanitation is really catered for in terms of these challenges.
So we work with a number of partners to create compacts or initiatives that are supported by the head of state that can also include critical reforms supported also by different institutions.
The third and final one that I will mention is accountability.
Accountability is important across many things that we do.
Partnerships that focus on how can we build in action and be able to come back to the table and so that we do not repeat the same mistakes so that they can be cost correction.
This aspect of accountability is crucial.
Number one, evidence, getting that evidence in the right decision makers, getting the political leaders to be supported in order to provide the leadership that is required.
Accountability is also crucial.
In terms of financing models, there are quite a lot.
We've held meetings for ministers of finance where we've heard of insurance schemes that can help.
There are a myriad of solutions that are out there.
What's important is that they should respond to the context.
In working with the governments, with the prime ministers or heads of state, we're really looking for solutions that respond to the context and that are also inclusive and that they take into consideration these critical points that have just been discussed today.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Lana, can we turn to you next? Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
When we talk about the shift when it comes to financing, we need to look also at the programming aspects and how we really try and move from project by project intervention to a long term investment in national systems.
This means that we have to have really good evidence and understanding about also the underlying causes where we need to address to ensure that we build resilience.
That really requires also predictable financing, stronger institutions, better data partnerships that are designed around country priorities rather than fragmented funding windows.
For UNICEF, this is really important because we work across the full continuum before, during, and after a crisis.
We lead and support wash response in humanitarian setting as the lead for the inter agency standing committee for the wash cluster and we basically have seen how we basically operated on water systems, whether in Syria, before, during, and after the war, now in Sudan and in many other contexts.
Being throughout the whole response and the recovery and the rehabilitation phase is really important because you pick what kind of programs that you need to have for long term sustainability.
Financing needs to become more strategic and risk informed.
Gulf partners already, whether it's KSA, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and others, they are major contributors to both humanitarian and development.
Now they're more and more asking us, is this sustainable? Is this the right intervention? That's really important.
This is basically what this index is also trying to basically present.
It's a tool that brings in evidence.
Also integrated partnerships, not isolated projects, that's really important.
How WASH is linked to health, nutrition, education, climate adaptation so that we basically achieve the required results.
Water access in schools affect attendance, dignity, hygiene, and learning.
Wash and nutrition programming help prevent disease and support child survival.
For us, we would like to keep the whole multi sectoral also link and really to justify and strengthen for the wash investment.
Third, we should also scale innovation and technical cooperation.
GCC countries continue bringing strong experience in desalination, water reuse, digital monitoring, AI enabled systems, climate smart infrastructure.
These are very important capabilities that can be matched with UNICEF field presence in 190 countries and territories and with partners and that's what we're looking at, much more smarter interventions and that we get support from the GCC not only on financing, but so that they also provide experiences to other countries.
The role of the international community is to align the financing evidence and technical expertise behind national systems, even if it's an emergency or crisis.
Even at the onset when it happens, we really want to think about long term.
If we're basically distributing water to impacted or affected population, is this sustainable? Are there any ways even with access constraint and other basically challenges? Can we put something that is more sustainable? That's really important and this is a question we have to ask in all settings.
Okay.
Thank you, Lana.
Now let me turn to doctor Abdel Aziz.
Extending to my esteemed colleagues mentioned, resilience cannot be built by one institution or even one country alone.
Water connects sectors, community, and nations, so resilience must be built through partnerships at every level.
First, we need stronger partnership between governments, development partners, international organizations, academia and private sector to combine policy, finance, innovation, and implementation.
Each has a distinct role, but resilience only emerges when they work together around a shared objective.
Second, we need to strengthen the bridge between humanitarian response and long term development.
Too often investments begin after a crisis.
We should instead invest before the crisis occur, using tools such as the Global Watch sector resilience Index to guide risk in foreign planning and prioritize resilience infrastructure and governance.
Third, knowledge sharing is essential.
Countries facing very different conditions all have valuable listen to offer.
We have learned important lesson from operating a resilient system under extreme water scarcity and managing one of the world's largest recurring mass gathering.
At the same time, we continue to learn from experiences across every region of the world.
Ultimately, resilience is not measured by the infrastructure we built, but by our collective ability to ensure that people continue to receive safe and reliable water and sanitation services, especially when they need them the most.
Thanks.
Thank you very much.
Now we're going to turn to some brief interventions from the floor.
It's my pleasure to ask Her Excellency, doctor Skal De Hari, the Secretary-General of the Environmental Agency of UAE, to take the floor.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chair.
First of all, let me congratulate you on launching the Global Wash Sector Resilience Index and definitely we cannot strengthen what we cannot measure.
For too long, resilience has been something we hoped for rather than something we plan, finance, and build.
I speak from one of the most water scarce environments on earth.
In Abu Dhabi, almost all of our drinking water comes from desalination.
Resilience is not an abstraction.
It is the difference between a system that can absorb a shock and one that cannot.
We have learned to treat it as a portfolio, Diversified sources, protected reserves such as our La strategic aquifer store, reused water, and all above all data.
Including a groundwater atlas of more than 118,000 miles.
One reflection for the index, let it reward not only the coverage we hold today, but the capacity to keep delivering tomorrow and let it connect wash to the whole water cycle from source to sea.
This December, the United Arab Emirates with Senegal will host the UN Water Conference in Abu Dhabi and definitely we invite you to bring this index and this conversation with you so that we turn measurement into commitment and commitment into systems that hold.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Are there any other interventions? No.
Henry, over to you.
Good afternoon.
My name is Henry Maido and I have the privilege of speaking on behalf of the Mcgil Youth Advisory delegation to the United Nations from Montreal Canada.
As the panel has already mentioned eloquently, youth in displacement settings are disproportionately affected by inadequate wash systems, consequently facing heightened risks to their health, safety, and education.
As the global wash sector resilience Index is rolled out, how can it continue to develop itself not only to capture the specific vulnerabilities young people face in these contexts, but also to actively empower them as agents of resilience building within their own communities, rather than treating them solely as vulnerable populations to be measured? Thank you.
Would anyone like to respond to that? City? Mr., you want to start? Yes.
Thank you very much.
I liked what you mentioned, our colleague from the UAE, where you talked about hope and planning.
Because I think in most cases, we rely on hope as a plan.
I think this type of issue really requires some good thinking in terms of what's going to happen, but also the investments behind that.
I've been involved in a number of fragile contexts where you do this type of planning.
But because the resources are not there, you end up just putting a wish list there.
It needs to be really beyond the wish list.
It needs to be a list that is, of course, realistic, but it also needs to be backed by resources and that cuts across institutions, cuts across the different types of partnerships.
I just wanted to reiterate that part.
Of course, to also agree with you, Henry, about the fact that this is issue that cannot be resolved just by one institution, even if that institution was well endowed with resources.
This is an issue that requires almost all of society, different types of institutions and types of stakeholders.
Within sanitation and water for all we work with different stakeholders, service providers, utilities, private sector, but also civil society as well as the different government agencies.
Just to reiterate this component about ensuring that these type of thinking, planning, and responses, investments will require different types of institutions and that needs to be managed well and combined in an effective way so that there could be efficiency.
Thank you.
Thank you, Cité.
Everest, do you want to comment? Yeah.
Adré the whole water and sanitation issue is more or less the whole society approach.
It's not a single individual partnership, but its whole society, including all level of political component, all the constituency in the country, different groups include people with disability, young people, gender component as well.
Actually, one of the key area that you might be thinking more is to strengthen capacity for the whole sector.
And the young people constitute one of the source where we need to dig into and capacity them to have those kind of knowledge so that they can wherever they go, whether it's advocacy or implementation, integrate resilience building in whatever they do.
So it's a big component of our program looking forward, that young people engagement become more predominant in what we shape the whole, Wsation agenda for the future as well.
Thank you.
All right.
In the interests of time, let us move on.
If anybody has any other interventions, how are we doing? Tim? I'll take one more over here.
Hello everyone.
My name is doctor Alejandro Gonzalez, and I'm here representing incision, a global organization of surgical professionals committed to stringent surgical system and advancing equitable access to safe surgical care worldwide.
Safe surgery depends on resilient health systems and reliable watch services are fundamental to preventing surgical site infections and ensuring quality surgical care.
How does the global sector resilience Index plan to measure the stringent watch resying specifically in healthcare facilities? Do you ambition opportunities to integrate surgical system indicators into the framework to better support safe and equitable surgical care, particularly in low and middle income countries, And second question is UNICEF has been a global leader in advancing both wash and nutrition.
Considering that malnutrition and inadequate wash significantly increase the risk of post surgical outcomes, particularly for children, how is UNICEF promoting integrated strategies that connect wash and nutrition within the primary health care systems? Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you for that.
As Yeah.
Those are quite fundamental question.
For washing her care facility, we have another tool called wash feed, which basically describes some of the steps that are very important from improving water and sanitation system in health care facility and making sure that the system continue running forever.
But we do have a lot of channel, whether in the middle income country, low income country, the investment to water sanitation to wash care facility remain very low.
But now we have a good business case that basically help and move the needle forward.
Then your second question is very important in the fact that I when we consider, you know, I was saying in one of the conference last time, say, as we consider glove or, you know, cotton or, you know, compressing healthcare facility, water and sanitation should be considered as the same thing.
They have the same importance, but they are not having that as well.
So when I took my position, I went to one of the village in Kenya called Kisimu and then people are still carrying pregnant women are still carrying what in the pocket to come to healthcare facility.
Those are the things that we need to work closely.
It's not only UNICEF job, but it's more a coalition of the partner.
It has to have a standard process.
Those are the standard process that we are working on.
It's quite linked with the global index because one of the key components of the global index is the accessibility of the community.
Which is lacking basically.
So when you don't have access to water and sanitation, the index and the government has a totally low weight in the whole process.
So it's a key component, whether it's school or healthcare facility, the access become predominant to shift the needle in the index as well.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you, Evarist.
In the interests of time, I'm going to move on to our concluding remarks.
But if you have any interventions that you would like to share, I think we are going to share an email address and we can respond to you there.
As we near the end of our session today, I'd like to invite two speakers to share their closing reflections.
First of all, miss Sima Hussein Rakesh, the Director of Energy and Sustainability Affairs from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the United Arab Emirates.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, everyone, distinguished guests and colleagues.
It's a real pleasure to be here with you today and apologies for coming in a little bit late.
I was just in another session next door.
You can really feel the momentum around water and SEG six throughout this week's high level political forum.
The timing could not be more fitting as the UAE prepares to convene the 2026 Human Water Conference co hosted by UAE and Synagogue in Abulabi 8-10 December.
Let me begin by first congratulating UNICEF and its partnership on the launch of the global Wash Sector resilience Index.
This is truly a valuable and timely contribution and for too long, we have measured progress in the sector by access alone.
With 2.1 billion people still lacking access to safely managed drinking water services and nearly 4 billion people experiencing severe scarcity for at least one month every year, access must be prioritized yet it's not at the same as resilience.
A system that delivers water today and cannot withstand a flood, a drought, or a shock tomorrow is not a system we can build a future on.
By benchmarking resilience across hazard vulnerability, service performance and governance, this index really gives governments and partners a clear evidence based picture of where the real risks lie.
We welcome that and we recognize its added value to the global water and sanitation agenda.
We're also confident that this is making a significant contribution to the preparations for the six and tractor dialogues of the 2026 UN Water Conference, whose themes were adopted by consensus exactly a year ago here at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
I would particularly like to highlight the dedicated theme on water for people because people will always be our North Star.
Water is life.
It is a basic human right.
It is the foundation for safety, stability, economic development and opportunities for all.
And this is why for the first time we explicitly included the phrase, including for those in vulnerable situations within this theme, reaffirming our commitment to leave no one behind.
At the same time, we recognize that the six intcive dialogues do not exist in silos.
They are deeply interconnected and mutually reinforcing.
That is also why resilience is explicitly reflected in the water for plant theme.
Recognizing that protecting ecosystems and strengthening resilience are inseparable from ensuring water access and improving people's lives.
And this topic particularly resonates with the United Arab Emirates.
We are one of the most, as mentioned by Here Dictor, we're one of the most water scarce countries in the world, and yet we have achieved near universal access to clean water and sanitation, and that did not happen by chance.
It is the product of visionary leadership and sustained investment, innovation.
Water has been treated as a national priority at the highest level, recognizing its value for society, the environment, and prosperity.
Our belief and commitment have never stopped at our own borders.
From the Zaedws which continue to serve millions of people worldwide over the course of decades, to the Hammet Ben Zaid Water Initiative focused on the development and deployment of technological innovation to address water scarcity.
From the Hamed Rachal Maktoum Global Water Award, which supports research and development of new innovation and technologies to address challenges that are faced by poverty and disaster stricken communities worldwide.
Earlier this year, we also launched the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development's global water platform aiming to reach 10 million people by 2030.
The UAE consistently worked to turn it into its own experience into solutions for the world's most vulnerable.
We're also proud of our longstanding contribution to the global effort to eradicate guinea worm disease, a fight that is very nearly won, and a reminder of what sustained commitment to water can achieve for human dignity and survival.
I share this not to speak of ourselves, but really because these efforts reflect a conviction we know is shared in this room and that sustainable management of our water resources is stewardship towards our people and our land.
Tools like this help all of us, governments, UN partners, operators and financiers alike to really invest more wisely and act before crisis strikes.
We congratulate again, UNICEF once again and we look forward to seeing how this index can really inform the collective work ahead, including on the road to the 2026 UN Water Conference.
Thank you so much and I look forward to welcoming you Abby end of the year.
Thank you, miss Karkash.
I mentioned the email address.
It's up on the screen.
For those of you who have interventions and would like to share them, we would appreciate you sending them via email.
For now, it is my pleasure to welcome His Excellency, Look Bardahor Tapa, the permanent representative of the permanent Mission of Nepal and the President of EcoSc for closing reflections.
Thank you and excellent seats, distingu delegates, colleagues, friends.
First, let me thank Unicef and distinguished speaker and all the participants for an engaging and thought provoking discussions.
Though I was not here this whole time, but I believe today's dialogue has reinforced a broader lesson that extends well beyond the water and sanitation sector.
Colleagues, sustainable development depends not only on expanding services, but strengthening the system that sustain them through times of uncertainty and times of crisis.
The global work sector resilience index represents an important contribution to that effort.
More importantly, it reminds us that evidence has its greatest value when it informs political choices, when it shapes public policy, and when it guides investment towards the people and communities that need it the most.
Friends, from the perspective of Nepal, this message carries particular regions.
It's a country highly vulnerable to climate change, natural disasters and geographic challenges.
Nepal has seen firsthand how fragile water and san system can be in the face of fs, landslides, and shifting weather patterns.
At the same time, Nepal's progress in expanding access to sanitation improving community la process demonstrate what is possible when national commitment is matched with local ownership, and a strong partnership.
Strengthening resilience and work systems is therefore not an abstract goal, but a practical necessity for safeguarding development gains and protecting vulnerable communities.
Dear colleagues, throughout this high level political forum, we have heard a consistent message, progress towards the sustainable development goals must be faster, more integrated, and more resilient.
Today's discussion has shown that strengthening water and sanitation system is central to that ambition.
It advances not only SDG six, but also health, education, gender equality, climate resilience, and inclusive economic development.
The challenge before us is therefore not simply to measure resilience, but to make it a guiding principle of national planning, international cooperation, and sustainable financing.
Encourage member states and all the partners represented here today to build on the momentum created by these loans, to use the evidence now available to strengthen national actions, deepen cooperations, and accelerate implementations.
The High level Political forum exists to translate knowledge into actions and commitment into regions.
Let today's discussion solve its another step in that collective endeavor.
I thank UNIC for its leadership, and I thank all of you for your continued commitment to achieving the sustainable development goals.
Thank you.
Thank you, Your Excellency, rousing words to conclude our event today, but we started a couple of minutes late, so I hope you won't mind if I ask Everest to finish our session today with a bit of a call to action.
Thank you very much and also thank you your Excellency for your kind words.
It's clear that I There's a call to repeat this session during Abu Dhabi during the UN Water conference.
It's one of the call that we receive and then we hope that you will basically make it happen.
Then the second call is to come up with something more concrete and some of the example on how the index is being implemented in some of the countries.
The third point is that we recognize the resilience at the foundation of what we do.
And it has to start in the beginning and many example for many countries have shown that very clearly.
Development partner and financial institutions need to prioritize investment in the beginning to strengthen resilience before it will occur.
Any crises occur at is vulnmental.
Humanitarian development act to work more closely together across the prevention response recovery continuum, I think it is also very important aspect.
Private sector innovative research institution also to accelerate the development and deployment of solution that can strengthen resilience at scale.
Then a regional organization and political leader to champion resilience as a strategic investment in stability, prosperity, and sustainable development.
I think this is one of the message for sanitation and water for world as well and all partner to use more evidence.
I'm very happy to hear from UAE that evidence is very important through data management, data generation, through a better global water sanitation resilience index to drive collective action.
I'll stop here and thank you very much.
Thank you, Everest, and that concludes our session for today.
Thank you all very much for your participation, your commitment to strengthening resilience in the wash sector and your thoughtful contributions.
Thank you.