Reflecting on AGWA's 2020 Achievements
As many of you will likely agree, we are excited to turn the page towards 2021 and another promising year of work for AGWA. In the Secretariat, we find January to be a useful time to both look ahead in terms of strategy for the year, and to reflect on the work from the past year. While 2020 didn’t turn out to be the year anyone expected, AGWA and the entire climate-water community accomplished an incredible amount. In many ways, we were busier than ever!
Here is a (long) look at select highlights from 2020:
AGWA took the next step in formalizing its status as an independent NGO in gaining its national tax-exempt status in the U.S. in May. The status change allows for tax-deductible donations in the U.S. as well as a number of other financial benefits.
At the 2020 Annual Meeting, members approved the addition of two new seats on the Board of Directors and voted in Belynda Petrie (OneWorld Sustainable Investments) and Thandie Mwape Villadsen (Partners for Resilience). The Strategic Advisory Council created in 2019 also expanded, with additions from: Seth Schultz (Resilience Shift), Emma Carmody (Environmental Defenders Office), Amit Singh (Fiji Ministry of Waterways and Environment), and Hina Lotia (development professional).
The AGWA Secretariat expanded in mid-2020 with the addition of Kari Davis as the new Technical Director. Kari’s work covers efforts around resilient systems and infrastructure, private sector adaptation, and climate finance. In addition, AGWA had several interns contribute to various projects throughout the year.
Our main website was completely redesigned and relaunched in May 2020. The overhaul included the addition of some new features, including an enhanced resource database in an effort to consolidate (and make more visible) the large volume of publications, videos, and other useful material that's been crowd-sourced through AGWA over the years.
Membership grew another 13% in the past year, with AGWA’s network now representing 2000 climate and water professionals globally.
AGWA’s ClimateReady Podcast continued in 2020 with a third season of diverse episodes. In this season, we partnered with the World Youth Parliament for Water for a recurring segment called “Climate of Hope.”
Even during a unique year, we had another successful presence at World Water Week in August. AGWA organized and participated in a number of events, including during the simultaneous Week on Water for Development organized by GIZ.
The CRIDA approach to risk assessment and reduction, crowdsourced through AGWA, saw a number of new applications and developments. The US state of California officially adopted it within its climate portfolio. UNESCO programs in southern Africa have been planned as well.
Capacity building and training for CRIDA continued, with UNESCO launching a free, self-paced online course in November. Content came from UNESCO IHP, AGWA, Deltares, and ICIWaRM. Over 700 participants registered. The course will be re-run in 2021, along with plans for French and Spanish versions.
UNESCO, ICIWaRM, and AGWA began a webinar series on climate-resilient water management approaches, featuring presentations on CRIDA, Decision Scaling, Adaptation Pathways, and the World Bank Decision Tree Framework. The first three installments had over 200 participants each. The series will continue in 2021.
With the support of GIZ, AGWA and Wetlands International co-authored a report for policymakers describing how wetlands can contribute to climate mitigation efforts — with particular guidance on incorporating wetlands in NDC revisions. The report and associated policy brief were launched in August.
A high-level scoping workshop on private sector adaptation was held at Microsoft in February. Through multiple processes, AGWA is engaged in developing guidance and decision support for businesses around water-centric climate resilience.
AGWA has been involved in an initiative to develop basin-level guidance through a Water Resilience Accounting Framework (WRAF), with strong potential for the private sector. The Pacific Institute, CEO Water Mandate, IWMI, GCA, UMass Amherst, and WRI are leading the initiative.
In June AGWA entered into a Strategic Partnership with the Resilience Shift, with AGWA serving as its Water Sector Lead (one of its four focal areas). A number of efforts around critical infrastructure are underway or in development.
In late 2020, AGWA led a series of three workshops for FAO on SDG tradeoffs around water, climate, and the environment. The efforts also include the preparation of an analytical framework for assessing water-related tradeoffs, which will be submitted this month.
The Asian Development Bank brought on AGWA to develop a mechanism for mainstreaming NBS within their project development cycle, which resulted in a Working Paper published in November.
Even with the deferral of COP26 to 2021, the Policy Group carried out events and dialogues with high level policymakers and the UNFCCC processes. They participated in Adaptation Committee meetings and contributed to the MPGCA.
With SIWI, IUCN, CDP, and the CEO Water Mandate, AGWA helped co-organize a Water Day at the UNFCCC Race to Zero Dialogues in November.
The Policy Group carried out a number of NDC guidance activities. With SIWI and UNDP, AGWA contributed to an “NDC Enhancement for Water” checklist for climate planners as well as a recurring webinar series and input to a water sector guidance paper as part of the UNDP-WRI NDC enhancement series.
The WASH community continued to explore ways to incorporate climate resilience into their work. WaterAid has been key in driving this, and AGWA has actively taken part in the efforts including through participation in the Prince Charles High-Level Climate and Water Summit last March.
AGWA continued to work with Deltares and the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management to explore the intersection of drought, DRR, and climate adaptation. AGWA provided input and briefing documents for meetings of the High-level Experts and Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters (HELP).