4th Annual World Water Forum (March 16 - 22, Mexico City)

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http://www.worldwaterforum.org/home/genwwf.asp?lan=

What is the 4th World Water Forum?

In October 2003, the Board of Governors of the World Water Council awarded the organization of the 4th World Water Forum to Mexico.

The World Water Forum is an initiative of the World Water Council that has the aim of raising the awareness on water issues all over the world. As the main international event on water, it seeks to enable multi-stakeholder participation and dialogue to influence water policy making at a global level, thus assuring better living standards for people all over the world and a more responsible social behavior towards water issues in-line with the pursuit of sustainable development.

The World Water Fora are built on the knowledge, experience and input of different types of organizations active in the global water polity. It is a venture founded on the principles of collaboration, partnership and innovation.

Guiding Principles

The World Water Forum has already been established as an open, multi-stakeholder participatory process, which builds on the knowledge, experience and input of the global water community. It seems appropriate now to establish other complementary guiding principles that should be the foundations of the joint efforts of all the organizations involved in the preparation of the 4th World Water Forum.

The guiding principles are:

a) The Forum will privilege the value of local knowledge and experience as a key factor in the success of water policy-making.

b) The Forum should produce concrete and policy oriented outputs aimed at supporting local action on a worldwide scale.

c) Water problems are complex and cross-cutting and thus the Forum will seek to enable dialogue between policy sectors and stakeholders.


Objectives

Among the objectives of the 4th World Water Forum are:

a) To actively promote the participation of all stakeholders during the Preparatory Process and the Forum itself.

b) To reinforce the conviction that local actors facing main water management and implementation challenges.

c) To actively seek to remove the barriers obstructing local action.

d) A regional scheme will be used throughout the Preparatory Process in order to foster regional debate geared at addressing regional challenges to later yield regional and global commitments.

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1. Every 20 Seconds...

Every 20 seconds, a child dies because there is no clean water. Let's hope some good comes out of this year's meeting.