Water as Leverage- Setting the scene for a call for action

Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities Asia
Setting the Scene for a Call for Action
the HLPW presented its report ‘Making every
drop count’ to the world with a call to action.
Building on this global awareness,
we also need to see water’s strengths in
connecting people and making them inter -
dependent as an opportunity. The time
has come to use water as leverage for
impactful and catalytic change. This requires
a balanced match between long-term
comprehensive urban planning and shortterm
innovative transformations, and between
ambitious climate adaptation plans and
bankable projects. Vulnerable cities must be
transformed into resilient ones, while at the
same time developing greater knowledge
of the water system and learning to build
greater capacity among both institutions and
individuals. Therefore result-driven, inclusive
and transparent collaboration is essential,
across all sectors, all layers of government, all
stakeholders – from activists and vulnerable
communities to private and public institutions.
The challenge is to bridge the gap
between plans and projects and between a
siloed technocratic approach and an inclusive
process that connects all stakeholders from
day one. The biggest task is to develop an
approach where those who implement and
fund the projects are part of the conception of
these projects as well, to ensure that innovative
and catalytic projects do not fall between
the cracks of the process of evaluation and
standardization. We cannot repeat our past
mistakes and continue to make investments
in isolated projects that aim to deal with the
disasters of yesterday but actually lead to even
worse disasters tomorrow. We have to start
funding innovative and transformative projects
that link everything together and thus meet
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of
the United Nations and the Paris Agreement’s
climate ambitions, and that help change the
world and the system from the ground up.
The Initiative: Water as Leverage
To take up this challenge, the Special
Envoy for International Water Affairs, Henk
Ovink, initiated Water as Leverage. Other
partners of this initiative are the Dutch Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, the Dutch Enterprise
Agency, the Dutch Minister of Infrastructure
and Water, the Asian Infrastructure Investment
Bank, the Global Centre of Excellence on
4 Introduction
Introduction
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