Enhancing capacity building addressing Water and Energy interlinkages for Sustainable Development in the Arab Region
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In September 2015, Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 related targets. The 2030 Agenda states that the SDGs are integrated and indivisible. Understanding the interlinkages and interdependencies across the goals is thus of crucial importance in ensuring that progress is achieved on the new Agenda.
Evident policy and operational linkages exist between the SDG 6 targets focused on ensuring water and sanitation for all and the SDG 7 targets aiming to ensure access to energy for all. Examining the SDGs as a system with a nexus lens helps identify these connections, and guide decision makers along the long-term path of sustainable development.
In this context, UNESCWA and UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) with support from the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Sub-Fund, are organizing an Expert Group Meeting on “Enhancing capacity building addressing Water and Energy interlinkages for Sustainable Development in the Arab Region”, to take place on the sidelines of ESCWA’s Committees on Energy and Water Resources.
The main objective of this meeting is to enhance ESCWA member countries and other relevant stakeholders ability to achieve an integrated and sustainable management of water and energy resources through South-South cooperation thereby contributing to the Sustainable Development of the Arab region. The meeting also aims to assess progress on the water-energy nexus in the Arab Region within the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Climate actions and to discuss institutional mechanisms and integrated approaches for pursuing policy coherence towards ensuring water and energy security at the regional and national levels.
Participants will also be invited to identify a possible policy tool or instrument that can be applied to support mainstreaming of water-energy interlinkages at the national level.