Participacin del Directorado

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4th World Water Forum
Progress meeting
José Antonio Rodríguez Tirado Regional Process
Coordinator 4th World Water Forum josea.rodriguez
_at_cna.gob.mx
Mexico 2006 4th World Water Forum
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The IV World Water Forum
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Gradually, countries have given greater
importance to a more efficient use and
preservation of water. A greater conscience has
now risen and nations realize that waste and
scarcity of this resource might affect social
welfare and limit development. Day by day,
people, organizations and nations are more
interested in sharing their own experiences and
in knowing how effective solutions have been
implemented to solve different challenges
regarding water issues.
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Therefore, World Water Forums have become one of
the most important events at the international
level. World Water Forums are held every three
years.
The 4th World Water Forum will be held in Mexico
City, from March 16th to 22nd, 2006.
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One of the main features of the Forum in Mexico
is that it will aim to display a broad range of
successful experiences and actions that have been
carried out in regard with water. We expect that
these experiences and actions be shared by the
countries of the world, with the purpose of
contributing to enable better ways of living for
their inhabitants.
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We want the Forum to be an open space where
anyone can share experiences, ideas and points of
view in relation with water. Different messages
and communications have been sent to people and
institutions interested or related to water
issues to invite them to participate in the
Forum. We asked people to register in the Forum
website all the experiences and local actions
that they would like to share with the world.
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Experiences and actions registered will be
integrated in the database that will be
distributed among the Forums participants. Selec
ted experiences and actions will be presented
during the Forum sessions.
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A typical Forum session will last for two hours
and will be developed as follows

• Session opening.
• Presentation of three to four successful
  experiences and local actions.
• Panelists' comments on the session regarding the
  presented experiences and actions.
• Questions and comments of the attendants to the
  session.
• Session conclusions.

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We have also invited institutions and
organizations to register in the Forums website
in order to be considered as potential session
conveners.
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The Regional Groups
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With the purpose of facilitating the organization
of the Forum, the following technical regional
working groups were created

• Africa.
• Americas.
• Asia-Pacific.
• Europe.
• Middle-East and North Africa.

Each group has been organized in a different way
and each one has a Coordinator.
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The name of the Coordinators are
AFRICA Francis D. Bougaire, African Ministerial
Council for Water fdbougaire.netcourrier.com Kordj
é Bedoumra, African Development
Bank k.bedoumra_at_afdb.org
AMERICAS Abel Mejia, World Bank amejia1_at_worldbank.
org
ASIA-PACIFIC Taeko Yokota, Japan Water
Forum ap_at_waterforum.jp
EUROPE Jeroen J. van der Sommen, Netherlands
Water Partnership jvds_at_nwp.nl
MIDDLE-EAST Wael Khairy, Arab Water
Council waelk_at_mwri.gov.eg
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Africa The African process has been lead by the
African Ministerial Council for Water
(AMCOW). Back on June, the AMCOW Executive
Committee took the following Actions related to
Africas participation in the Forum

• Formed a Steering Committee to be chaired by
  AMCOW Executive Committee (AMCOW-EXECO) from
  Namibia to provide overall guidance.

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• Established a Technical Committee to be
  co-chaired by AMCOW Technical Advisory Committee
  (AMCOW-TAC) member from Burkina Faso and the
  African Development Bank (ADB) to give technical
  guidance.
• Requested the African Development Bank to be a
  beacon organization and coordinate Africa's
  contribution and ensure Africa's participation in
  the 4th World Water Forum.

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Americas The technical group is formed by an
Operative Committee and a Consultative
Network. The Operative Committee Chairmanship is
rotating, currently under the responsibility of
the World Bank. Among the organizations and
institutions that are part of the Operative
Committee of the Americas, we can mention

• The United Nations.
• Organization of American States.
• The World Bank.
• Global Water Partnership.

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• US Army Corps of Engineers.
• The Inter-American Development Bank.
• The Water Advisory Council of Mexico.
• Fresh Water Action Network - Central America.
• The National Association of Water and Wastewater
  Utilities of Mexico.
• The American Association of Water Resources.
• World Water Council.
• National Water Commission of Mexico.

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Asia-Pacific The Asia-Pacific preparatory
process towards the 4th World Water Forum is
structured on a sub-group basis. The
Asia-Pacific Region has been divided into the
following five Sub-groups

• Northeast Asia
• Southeast Asia
• South Asia
• Central Asia
• Oceania Pacific

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The organizations in charge of the each group are

• Northeast Asia Korea Water Forum.
• Southeast Asia GWP SEA.
• South Asia GWP SAS.
• Central Asia GWP Cacena.
• Oceania Pacific SOPAC.

Each Sub group is supported by a liaison officer
coming from the Japan Water Forum (JWF).
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Europe The European Consultation Network and the
European Operational Committee form together the
Technical Group. Among the organizations
co-operating in the European Consultation
Network, we can mention

• Austrian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry,
  Environment and Water Management.
• Complutense University of Spain.
• Cooperative Program on Water and Climate.

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• Eureau, European Enterprises and facilities.
• French Water Academy.
• GWP-Mediterranean.
• INBO/EuroINBO.
• IWA.
• Netherlands Water Partnership.
• Seine-Normandy Water Agency.
• University of Osnabruck.
• Water Europe Solidarity.
• Women for Water.
• World Water Council.

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Middle-East and North Africa A collaboration
agreement was reached between the World
Bank-Middle East and North Africa (WB-MENA)
program, and the Arab Water Council to organize
the technical consultations as part of the
preparatory process for the regional contribution
towards the 4th World Water Forum. The Arab
Water Council is the largest non-governmental
organization actively involved with water issues
in the twenty two countries of the Arab States
Region.
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Participants from the consultative workshops have
come from different countries and organizations.
Some of them are

• The World Bank.
• Ministry of Water Resources, Algeria.
• Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation,
  Egypt.
• Ministry of Energy, Kuwait.
• Ministry of Water and Electricity, Saudi Arabia.
• Islamic Development Bank.
• Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

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• Ministry of Rural Development, Hydraulics, and
  Environment, Mauritania.
• Ministry of Water and Environment, Yemen.
• UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia
  (UN-ESCWA).
• Ministry of Water Resources, Libya.
• Ministry of Irrigation, Syria.
• International Center for Biosaline Agriculture.
• Observation du Sahara et du Sahel OSS, Tunis.

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The progress
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From the beginning, each regional group has been
working in different actions orientated to

• Identify successful experiences and local actions
  that could be presented during the Forum and
  promote their registration.
• Encourage the registration in the 4th Forum
  website of the organizations and institutions
  interested in being session conveners.
• Integrate a document that shows the main water
  related problems in the region, that explains the
  progress made so far in their solution and that
  evaluates the future perspectives.
• Produce a brief paper that will be considered as
  an input for the Ministerial Declaration.

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It is important to mention that each technical
group has been working in a very hard,
professional and enthusiastic way. The results
that they have achieved so far in the preparatory
process of the Forum are very good and will be
important in the Forum itself.
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The sessions
It is important to point out that

• The Forum will be integrated by around 150
  sessions.
• The number of requests received in the Forums
  website to convene a session was 569.

Session conveners have been already selected and
notification letters have been sent.
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The local actions
In each session, a number of three to four local
actions will be presented. They have to be
selected from the Forum database. It is
important to mention that 1,585 experiences and
local actions were registered in the Forums
website.
In our opinion, this situation reflects the great
interest in the Forum.
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The Document of the Regions
The Document will be presented in a plenary
session organized by each regional group. The
groups are working in the final versions of the
documents.
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The Thematic Documents
The Forum has been organized into five framework
themes and five cross-cutting perspectives. For
each one of them a thematic document is being
produced by a set of organizations and
institutions.
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The input for the Ministerial Declaration
The technical groups have produced inputs for the
Ministerial Declaration and based on them, the
first version of the Ministerial Declaration was
produced.
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The forum program
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During the Forum, one may have the opportunity of
attending a great broad of activities, such as

• Sessions to present successful experiences and
  actions.
• The presentation of regional documents.
• The presentation of thematic documents.
• The participation in the Ministerial Conference.

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• We will know about the services and support
  offered by different institutions, agencies and
  non-governmental organizations.
• In addition, we can visit the Water Expo of
  manufacturers and suppliers related to water from
  all over the world.

• The Forum will also offer a wide range of
  artistic and cultural activities.

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General program of the 4th World Water
Forum Mexico City, March 16-22, 2006
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Any additional detailed information, can be found
in the IV World Water Forums website.
www.worldwaterforum4.org.mx
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Final comment
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I am sure that we meet in the Forum of Mexico and
that we will share and know about experiences and
actions that have favorably changed the life of
many people in different parts of the world.