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The Water Initiative

The Water Initiative helps build multistakeholder partnerships between private, public and non-governmental actors to contribute to the water-related Millennium Development Goals.

Objective

The overall objective of the Water Initiative is to help improve water resource management for communities, businesses and the environment and to improve access to water services for all, thereby contributing to the wider international effort to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Background

Today, to minimize risk and maximize positive social impact from their operations, every organization must operate in an environmentally sustainable and socially responsible manner. Countries rapidly developing or facing water stress are of particular concern, and a high priority must be given to water supply and water resource management issues. There is no business and no development without water and the risk of failure in these activities will only increase without action.

However, no one stakeholder acting alone can be successful in meeting the global water challenge. Effective multistakeholder partnerships, involving active engagement from business, the public sector, local communities and civil society organizations, are now well recognized as being a key to tackling these pressing problems. Unfortunately, partnerships in water are often difficult to create and sustain. The Water Initiative aims to add value by using the Forum’s networks and impartial platform to effectively engage Forum member companies and catalysing multistakeholder partnerships in water.

Action

The Water Initiative of the World Economic Forum is:

Raising awareness among the business community of the opportunities and potential of multistakeholder partnerships;

Facilitating the entry of the private sector into compatible and ultimately successful partnerships in water;

Assisting these new partnerships to commit and leverage resources for partnership development and implementation;

Developing regional and national Business Alliances as project exchange facilities to help stakeholders network and engage with each other;

Using the Forum's convening power to put water supply and water resource management issues higher on national and international agendas.

These actions are an integral part of the initiative's primary workstream:
The Water Project Exchange - a matchmaking platform for water and sanitation and watershed management projects.

Benefits

In addition to the wider social benefits that arise from successful multistakeholder partnerships, the private sector can also realize advantages and value through their visible and active involvement in the partnerships that the Water Initiative helps to catalyse. These can come from:

Enhancing the health and livelihoods of local communities, employees, their families and local supply chains;

Strengthening local enterprise capacities and helping to advocate for good local governance in water management;

Business taking leadership in encouraging and implementing innovative ideas and solutions for water supply and water resource management;

Demonstrating that business can work with others to share and use local water resources sustainably;

Networking and experience sharing on water partnerships with other first-mover business organizations;

Increased interaction and profile with key international development and financial agencies active in the water arena.

Who is involved