- 8th Meeting
May 30-June 1, 2007
Shanghai, China
- 7th Meeting
December 13-15, 2006
Tunis, Tunisia
- 6th Meeting
July 10-11, 2006
Paris, France
- 5th Meeting
March 14-15, 2006
and 4th World Water Forum
March 16-22, 2006
Mexico City, Mexico
- 4th Meeting
February 20-21, 2006
Berlin, Germany
- 3rd Meeting
November 3-4, 2005
Rome, Italy
- 2nd Meeting
December 9-10, 2004
Tokyo, Japan
- 1st Meeting
July 22-23, 2004
New York, USA
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4th Meeting of the Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation
(UNSGAB)
February 20-21, 2006
Berlin, Germany
Meeting Summary
The fourth session of the Advisory Board took place on February 20th and 21st, 2006 at GTZ office in Berlin, Germany.
1. Substantial Discussion
As follow-up of the last session, the Board discussed on and approved the Compendium of Actions (COA) "Your Action, Our Action" for the following three topics:
- Water Operators Partnerships (WOPs)
- Financing
- Sanitation
Water Operators Partnerships (WOPs), previously called Public-Public Partnerships (PUPs), is a useful mechanism for providing support for capacity building of public operators. The Board agreed to call this new mechanism Water Operators Partnerships (WOPs) which does not exclude private sector operators, NGOs or those who can contribute to the performance of public water undertaking on a non-for-profit basis.
Financing is one of the major challenges in achieving internationally agreed goals on water and sanitation. Three key areas have been identified for actions by the Board: the National policy setting level; the financial and donor community; and the actors involved in facilitating the decentralization of water and sanitation services to the district and municipal levels.
Sanitation is lagging behind in achieving MDG and JPOI. The Board agreed to target to gear up political awareness and concentrated actions toward placing sanitation on track.
Monitoring
Under the theme of monitoring, the Board discussed on several independent initiatives designed to improve global monitoring such as Joint Monitoring Programme by UNICEF / WHO and CSD WAND, a water action and networking database. The Board requested the UN-Water to provide a platform to put those initiatives together and conduct comprehensive study and improve methodologies. Several members expressed concerns on insufficient budget allocation for monitoring at national level.
The Board discussed according to the list of questions identified from key "doable recommendations" of the major reports and international decisions.
Based on the decision, the Working Group on Monitoring will, with active support of the Secretariat, produce draft Output Paper which will be a Chapter on Monitoring of the Compendium of Actions "Your Action, Our Action."
The Working Group on Monitoring will consist of the following members:
- Juanita CataNo
- MarGaret Catley-Carlson
- Giorgio Giacomelli
- Ronnie kasrils
- Gerard Payen
- Shucheng Wang
The working group will finalize the output on Monitoring by end-February which will be communicated to the rest of the Board before the next meeting.
IWRM
Under the theme of IWRM, the Board discussed on integration of physical management and partnership among stakeholders as dorable recommendation items. There was a consensus among the Board members effective coordination should be encouraged among stakeholders in decision making process. Several members expressed the importance of having dialogue among donors and River Basin Organizations (RBOs.)
The Board discussed according to the list of questions identified from key "doable recommendations" of the major reports and international decisions.
Based on the decision, the Working Group on IWRM will, with active support of the Secretariat, produce draft Output Paper which will be a Chapter on IWRM of the Compendium of Actions "Your Action, Our Action."
The Working Group on IWRM will consist of the following members:
- Mohmoud Abu-Zeid
- Juanita CastaNo
- Margaret Catley-Carlson
- Uschi Eid
- Ronnie Kasrils
- Poul Nielson
- Eric Odada
- Judith Rees
- Yordan Uzunov
- Shucheng Wang
The working group will finalize the output on IWRM by end-February which will be communicated to the rest of the Board before the next meeting.
Water and Disasters
At the beginning of the discussion, LTG Strock, Chief, US Army Corps of Engineers, made a presentation on "Water Resource Management in the United States: Hurricane Katrina Response and Lessons Learnt." The Board appreciated his presentation to show the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and the hurricane protection system and process established by U.S. Army Corps Engineers.
There was a consensus among the Board members that water and disasters issues should be taken as one of the Board's pillars. Upon request of the Chair, the basic idea of the target to halve global human loss by water-related disasters was introduced to the members by Mr. Hideaki Oda, Head of the Chair's Supporting Team. Several members expressed their support of establishing the new international numerical target for reduction of casualty by water-related disasters while others expressed concerns on addition of the new numerical target to MDGs.
The Board discussed according to the list of questions identified from key "doable recommendations" of the major reports and international dialogue process.
Based on the decision, the Working Group on water and disasters will, with active support of the Secretariat, produce draft Output Paper which will be a Chapter on Water and Disasters of the Compendium of Actions "Your Action, Our Action."
The Working Group on water and disasters will consist of the following members:
- Mohmoud Abu-Zeid
- David Boys
- Juanita CastaNo
- Jocelyn Dow
- Eric Odada
- Yordan Uzunov
- Shucheng Wang
The working group will finalize the output on water and disasters by late February which will be communicated to the rest of the Board before the next meeting.
UN Water Prize
The criteria of the UN Water Prize were proposed by the Secretariat upon request of the Board at the last meeting.
Board's Message
The Board agreed to announce the Board's message as part of the Compendium of Actions at the 4th World Water Forum. The Secretariat will draft a short and punchy message within 1-2 pages reflecting discussions at this meeting by end-February which will be communicated to the Board members before the next meeting. The Board's message will be finalized and approved by the Board members at the next meeting.
2. Other Actions
The film of the Board for the Public Service Announcement (PSA) in CNN International was introduced to the Board members by the Secretariat. The PSA film has been on air 5-6 times a day since a week ago for a few months, expecting to reach about 120 million viewers at a time. The objective of broadcasting the PSA film is to raise international awareness on water and sanitation which is one of the Board's missions.
The brochure of the Board is prepared for the first distribution at the 4th World Water Forum with support of Japan Water Forum, and will be distributed as a package with the Compendium of Actions to be finalized at the next meeting. The brochure will be also supplied for the member's use in order to widely make know the Board's activities. As another Board's toolkit, the letter head and envelops with logo of the Board was distributed to the members for the use in writing letters for the Board's activities, which will be supplied upon request of the members.
The contents of official website(http://www.unsgab.org) launched at the last meeting have been expanded as it currently includes pages in Spanish, "Your Action" pages, "Your Voices" pages and MDG and Water pages.
3. New members
The Board extended a cordial welcome to the following new members:
- Mr. WANG SHUCHENG, Minister of Water Resources of the People's Republic of China
- Mr. GIORGIO GIACOMELLI, Chair of HYDROAID -Water Development Management Institute of Italy
4. Vice Chair
As the Board agreed at the last meeting, Ms. Uschi Eid has been appointed to the Vice Chair of the Board in order to assist the Chair in fulfilling her tasks.
5. Miscellaneous
The Chair acknowledges that some members have been already active in taking actions to follow up discussion in the previous meetings. All participated members of the Board agreed to take actions individually in their own capacities in order to promote the Board's activities. Several Board members expressed their own commitments to contact with stakeholders, including regional and development banks and institutions.
6. Next meetings
It was reaffirmed that the fifth meeting of the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation will be held in March 14th and 15th, 2006 in Mexico City, Mexico in order to finalizing the Compendium of Actions. The details of the future meetings will be communicated by the Secretariat.
7. Agenda at the next meeting
Finalizing the Compendium of Actions on disaster, monitoring and IWRM were agreed by the Board as substantial agenda items of the next meeting. The Compendium of Actions will be announced in the keynote speech to be delivered by the Chair at the opening plenary of the 4th World Water Forum.
The Board requested the Secretariat to inform the Secretary General in advance that the message from the Board to the Secretary General will be delivered at the occasion of the 4th World Water Forum.
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| Discussions at the 4th session | LTG Strock, Chief of US Army Corps of Engineers, speaking at the 4th session |
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