A Look Back at AGWA’s 2024 Achievements
We are excited to welcome in 2025 and all that it will bring. The turn of the year year also represents a good opportunity to take stock on all of the progress we made as an organization over the last twelve months. We have much to be proud of from 2024! Our members, partners, and the Secretariat made tremendous strides in advancing climate-resilient water management practices and policies through a range of initiatives. We also look back on the year with gratitude. Thanks to all of the AGWA members that made generous donations to our nonprofit to help further the work we do.
Below we do our best to capture a portion of the developments and milestones worth celebrating. So give yourself a pat on the back, AGWA members, and use this as motivation to continue striving in 2025!
Organizational Developments
New and existing donors continued to put their faith in AGWA’s mission by supporting our programming. The overall budget of AGWA grew yet again as AGWA continued several multi-year grants and received funding from new institutional supporters.
Our governance and advisory bodies saw change and growth. We elected two new Board Members through an open online voting process in the lead up to our Annual Meeting, and elected a new Co-Chair to the Board. In addition, two new members were added to the Strategic Advisory Council and a Special Advisor was added to the Board in a non-voting role.
Membership growth continued at a steady pace as we reached new audiences and individuals signed up to be part of AGWA.
The Secretariat was active in attending global events to highlight our programs, meet with partners, and develop new connections. In addition to others listed below, we were proud to take part in Climate Week NYC, Cairo Water Week, Stockholm World Water Week, AWS Forum, and more.
Policy Engagement
We sent three members of the Secretariat to COP29 in Baku, in addition to another long-term AGWA policy consultant, many Board Members, and dozens of partners/members. We were involved in 15+ COP events, including two official side events and the Marrakech Partnership Global Climate Action Event on Water.
AGWA once again served on the Steering Committee of the COP Water for Climate Pavilion and led the sub-working group on resilient mitigation.
Between COPs, AGWA participated in other areas of UNFCCC engagement such as the Adaptation Committee, the SB in Bonn, and workshops under the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) UAE-Belem work program. At SB60 in June, we organized an official side event as well as a High-Level Session on Watering the Clean Energy Transition offsite at GIZ.
The Water Resilience Tracker saw tremendous growth and success in 2024. The program is now in its second phase and has secured funding from multiple donors to carry out activities of more depth and breadth across a long list of countries. Arup, Deltares, and IWMI joined as core partners for development and implementation.
The CASTT Adaptation Academy hosted two regional courses in 2024: one for Sub-Saharan Africa in South Africa (April) and one for Asia in Bangkok (October). A Latin America course is planned for early 2025, with AGWA supporting the UNFCCC and implementing partners.
Technical Programming
CRIDA was officially adopted as a UNESCO Flagship Initiative in June. AGWA continues to support UNESCO and others in identifying governance, capacity building, and training activities.
The Water Resilience for Economic Resilience (WR4ER) initiative took great strides, launching its Flagship Report in April and convening several events throughout the year through conferences, workshops, and an ongoing webinar series.
AGWA continued to host the secretariat for the Water Initiative for Net Zero (WINZ). WINZ made tremendous strides on topics associated with resilient mitigation, including contributions to internal and external working groups, convening of in-person and online events, and publishing various case studies and briefing reports. A whole new set of activities is being planned for 2025!