“Is climate change adaptation all about water?”

On 25 and 26 April 2023, Enabel, the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD) of the Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, and VITO (Flemish Institute for Technological Research) are organising an international conference on the importance of water in the context of adaptation to climate change.

The conference will bring together actors from the water sector and from different other sectors in order to strengthen networking, collaboration, share challenges and solutions. The objective is to formulate key messages and recommendations at the policy level on how to promote the water sector to increase its presence on the international scene. 

“Water is crucial for human activities and ecosystems and it is a central element of the climate change agenda. People all over the world feel the consequences of climate change, and many of these consequences are related to water: droughts, floodings, changing weather conditions… I am particularly happy to see that the conference is giving special attention to young people in this respect, because the decisions and measures that are taken now, will impact their lives in the future,” says Belgian minister for Development Cooperation and Major Cities Caroline Gennez. 

The conference is expected to create leverage for technical, innovative and financial partnerships in which the issue of water is highlighted. The focus of the 2-day event will be on water as a key factor of urban resilience and nature-based solutions and on water as a driver of the nexus between Water, Energy, Food and Ecosystems (WEFE).

“With this conference, we aim to convince experts outside the water sector that they need water to achieve their own results. Current challenges such as climate change, urbanisation, inequalities, and even peace and security are interconnected. That is a crucial understanding if we want to tackle these challenges,” says Enabel’s managing director Jean Van Wetter. 

“Climate chaos hits us hardest in water extremes: too much resulting in devastating floods, too little in social and economic droughts. With the conference, we want to share existing technologically innovative solutions and an outlook of future developments with the aim of ultimately implementing them in areas that are already disproportionately affected by climate change today. In doing so, we hope to contribute to the achievement of the SDG’s and strengthen the knowledge and application of resilient water management as a transformative gamechanger”, says Dirk Fransaer, Managing Director of VITO.  

This conference is part of the Belgian activities to contribute to the dialogue of the UN Water conference of New York in 2023. The organisers hope to pursue the discourse on breaking silos and offering inspiration for a multisectoral perspective in climate change actions. 

The conference includes keynotes, panel debates and break-out workgroups. It can be attended either in-person or online. The closing remarks will be given by Belgian minister for Development Cooperation and Major Cities Caroline Gennez.

More information: Caroline Deketele – Event & Communication Officer at Enabel : 0477.65.25.25
To register please contact: waterclimatedays@enabel.be