Water: fit to life?— From policy circles to the UNLEASH innovation lab
Freshwater is rare. Just remember what we call the James Bond number in water circles: only 0,007% of all water on Earth is fit to life — connected to all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by UN member states including education, health, energy, food, urbanization, production and consumption. After working in the global water policy sector, I am keen to change the context: That is why I am super excited to be part of the founding class of the global innovation lab, UNLEASH that kick starts in just a few days in Denmark where 1000 young professionals from 129 countries will boost ideas to tackle the SDGs. It is a fantastic opportunity to use my insights on water from the academic, policy, and NGO circles, share it with a new crowd and learn more about innovation through working on #SDG12, Sustainable Consumption and Production. Ultimately, I’d like to bring home solutions from all around the world and engage with like-minded people.
As per my background, I grew up in the post-communist era of Hungary, where as opposed to my parents for example, my generation had the benefit of increased freedom, mobility, especially after joining the EU. This is also how I could become an MSc graduate in International Development and Management at Lund University, Sweden, during which I already knew that I wanted to work with water internationally as an agent of change and collaboration. As this article is supposed to be a personal piece, I will share some stories about how I tested the waters:
As an activist and passionate about the Nile basin, I was part of a community-led initiative to plant the seeds of building a network for civil-society to engage through the Nile. Check out the short video for a teaser.
As a researcher, I analyzed so called ‘land grab’ and ‘water grab’ examples in Ethiopia and wrote my MSc thesis on the infamous Saudi Star rice farm (a Saudi Arabian agro business) site in the Gambella region.
As a development practitioner at a Swedish think-tank, together with the development community we were supporting the Jordanian, Israeli, and Palestinian decision-makers to develop the first ever trans-boundary integrated master plan for the lower Jordan River which is in dire need of conservation.
I even gave a TEDx talk about these experiences a few years ago (in Hungarian).
As a chargé de mission at the World Water Council , we were facilitating multi-stakeholder processes internationally, to mobilize political action at the highest possible levels for water. At the 7th World Water Forum in South Korea and in the prep for the 8th Forum in Brazil, I realized that the discourses and approaches to water haven’t fundamentally changed over the past few decades.
However, I’ve seen progress in 2015–2016 by e.g. connecting water and climate policies through working with the UNFCCC, and COP Presidencies. It was partially the outcome of decades of work by the water community, and as a good example of water cooperation, the #ClimateIsWater initiative with over 30 international partners, the first ever Global Climate Action day for Water in the history of climate summits was convened at COP22 in Marrakesh.
So, whats next?
As the water crisis is marked among the top global risks in terms of impact by the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Risk Report for many years now, there is a momentum around water being identified not only as a key formula for sustainable development, but finance too. I am keen to explore corporate supply chains, sustainability reporting, and making the SDGs more relevant for business, primarily from a water perspective. The environmental and climate science is clear: so are the growing costs of inaction. The faster a critical mass of company leaders decide to line up their business objectives with the Global Goals and make their sectors more sustainable, the more business there will be for everyone in a more predictable, prosperous, peaceful world. Consumers should claim these principles from companies as well. Being #businessworthy as coined by the Business for Peace Foundation is to apply your business energy ethically and responsibly with the purpose of creating economic value, as well as value for society. All businesses, no matter their scale of operations, should choose soon to incorporate the SDGs into their core growth strategies, value chain operations and policy positions.
I am coming to Denmark for the UNLEASH lab to learn, reflect, and connect the global to the local, the policy with the business. I come without expectations, but with the willingness to try to make UNLEASH as relevant as possible for those who are the most disadvantaged, and unlikely to get to programs like UNLEASH to get their voices heard. By looking at my peers’ profile and ideas, I have not a single doubt that our goals and aspirations are shared, and the UNLEASH team has been doing an amazing job so far to enable us to come fully prepared.
So this is my humble plan while going through the first meeting with entrepreneurs at an innovation lab in my life:
- Connect with those who are interested as well in bringing sustainability principles and reporting to businesses, with a focus on water
- Bring stories about how much decisions over water matters by governments, companies, individuals
- Propose ideas to connect UNLEASH (focusing on the SDGs) with the COP process (focusing on the climate negotiations, and the implementation of the Paris Agreement)
- Support my peers to unleash their ideas because I think that everyone will bring something useful and teamwork will require appreciating that
- As an individual, my own footprint matters too- so I plan to share and exchange ideas about who does what to shift their consumer patterns and lifestyles to make more conscious choices to reduce their impact
- bring lots of smiles, an open mind, and techniques to de-stress!
I hope to take away:
- Insights and first-hand experience with the entrepreneurial mindset to sustainability challenges
- Portraits of UNLEASHers about their ideas related to SDGs
- Take stories back home from all around the world, and spread them as positive cases to inspire and connect with youth and entrepreneurs in Hungary
