Water is essential for sustaining healthy ecosystems and the well-being of people. Through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other international initiatives, the world has committed to solving many of the global water challenges and the impact of climate change, but we need to step up the effort to achieve our goals.

As part of its participation in the United Nations 2023 Water Conference, Antea Group is organizing the lunch session: “Water as support of livelihood on Earth, a social-ecological resilience approach.”

New innovative coalitions of stakeholders are needed to accelerate the water and climate agenda across the world, as well as state-of-the are tools and methods to connect and improve interventions at all levels. We draw on different examples on how alliances, networks, living labs and transboundary project bring together stakeholders at different levels and from different disciplines.

Program

• Introduction: “Why social-ecological resilience?” Introduction by Tom D’Haeyer – Antea Group
• Welcome
• “Flanders as drought resilience living lab, a fruitful collaboration between policy, industry and citizens,” by Minister Zuhal Demir

Speakers

• “Water Always Wins. Thriving in a Age of Drought and Deluge,” by Erica Gies (Author and independent journalist)
• “Flanders Blue Deal project Landscape park Burchdam – green-blue climate buffers in an urban landscape,” by Alexander De Ruijter – Antea Group
  “Strengthening resilience in the Belgian Development Cooperation thought the Network on Socio-ecological resilience – Case Burundi,” by Nestor Mburente – AVEDEC/SECORES/Join For Water
• “Charco Bendito: BIER’s Unprecedented Watershed Collaboration in Jalisco, Mexico,” by Alex Mung – ABInbev

Panel

• • Valintin Aich (Program manager GWP/WMO) –   Integrating Knowledge and Practice for Drought Resilience – Towards the High-Level Meeting of National   Drought Policy +10
  • Vidhisha Samarasekara (Strategic Program Director – Water, Climate Change and Resilience – IWMI) –   Building Climate Resilience through Enhanced Water Security in MENA
  • John Matthews (Executive Director – AGWA) –  The economic systems transformation initiative – Water Resilience for Economic Resilience
  • Cate Nimanya (Director Regional Africa – Water for People) – Creating a world where everyone has safe drinking water, forever

Chair & Moderator Tom D’Haeyer – Antea Group , Inge Genné – VITO

Closing speech

The Belgian Copernicus Collaborative Ground Segment Terrascope platform, funded by BELSPO and hosted at VITO by Ambassador Luc Jacobs, Special Envoy for Climate and Environment (Belgium)