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Organization : United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation
Acronym: : UNESCO
Nationality of the organisation of establishment : International Year of establishment : 1945
college to which your organisation belongs to :
College 1:Inter-governmental organisations
Scope of your organisation : Regional: sub-national
National
Regional: multi-national
International
Are you organiation's activities focused primarily on water and sanitation ? : Yes No
Please indicate your organisation's field(s) of expertise and activities :
  • Water resources management
  • Basic Human needs or health
  • Development or infrastructure
  • Climate or natural hazards
  • Environment or ecosystems
  • Water supply or sanitation
  • Agriculture or food production
  • Human rights or social issues
  • Education or capacity building
  • Human settlements or habitats
  • Regulation and governance
  • Economics or finance
  • Research or development
  • Energy or industry
  • Media awareness
  • International cooperation or humanitarian relief
You may specify your activities by providing a list of more precise keywords:
Hydrology, water resources management, water related hazards, climate chnage, groundwater, water quality, water eduction, eco-hydrology, water scarcity and water and human settelments, scientific cooperation
Description of your Organisation's activities : UNESCO is a specialized UN agency for building lasting peace and sustainable development through education, culture, sciences and communication and information and water plays an important role in contributing to achieve the organization overall goal. UNESCO has accumulated more than 50 years of experience on water and has a unique global water network comprising the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) and the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP). The International Hydrological Programme (IHP), has evolved from an internationally coordinated hydrological research programme into an encompassing inter-governmental programme to facilitate research, education and capacity building, and enhance water resources management and governance. The intergovernmental nature of IHP ensures the link with expressed needs of Member States, which receive support from the UNESCO water network, the largest international network of water experts: 168 IHP national representatives, 37 category 2 centres under the auspices of UNESCO and 57 UNESCO Chairs in water. Through this network, UNESCO water programmes have established credibility in the area of water resources management cooperation as technically competent, neutral and trusted conveners. The IHP mobilises more than 3,000 water related experts, policy makers and professionals from many different countries in contributing to solve water problems. The current eighth phase of the IHP (2014-2021) is on water security. The Programme seeks to strengthen the policy-science interface, develop institutional capacity and mobilize international cooperation to support research, technology and innovation. By delivering education and training, providing data and information, developing and testing tools and methodologies IHP contributes directly and/or indirectly to SDG 6 and its targets. Considering the entire water cycle, UNESCO IHP also contribute to implement many other goals such as those on poverty reduction and equality [1, 10, 16] , agriculture [2], health [3], education [4], gender [5], energy [7], the economy and infrastructure [8 – 12], climate change and resilience [13], and the environment [14, 15]. Furthermore, IHP also provides contribution to achieve SDG 17, by enhancing global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries. UNESCO’s World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) coordinates the work of UN-Water 31 members and 39 partners in the UN World Water Development Report (WWDR), the flagship report on freshwater providing an authoritative picture of the state, use and management of the world’s freshwater resources. The annual WWDR provides the thematic backbone of the World Water Day and focus on relevant interlinkages between SDG 6 and other SDGs (e.g., water and jobs, nature-based solutions, leaving no one behind, water and climate). WWAP coordinated also the production of the UN-Water SDG 6 Synthesis Report.

Governor representative :
First Name : Abou Last Name : Amani
Title : Dr. Position : Chief of section hydrological systems and water scarcity
Nationality : Niger Gender : Male Female
Email : a.amani@unesco.org
background : Mr Amani is a civil engineer graduated from the Ecole Polytechnic of Thies in Senegal (1990). He holds a PhD on civil engineering with focus on hydrology and water resources from Polytechnic of Montreal in Canada (1995). He also holds the title of “Maitre de recherche” which is equivalent to senior researcher or Associate Professor delivered by CAMES (African Higher Education Council). Since January 2016, He is the chief of the section on hydrological systems and water scarcity at the UNESCO water sciences division in Paris. He leads and guides the Section activities for the delivery to Member States of improved knowledge, capacity, policy advice, methodologies and tools for addressing water related disasters, hydrological change and water scarcity challenges. He is also the gender focal points of the division. Before joining Headquarters, He was from 2010 to 2015, the regional hydrologist for Africa in charge of the implementation of the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme in Sub-Saharan Africa and based in Nairobi Regional office in Kenya. He contributed to raise the visibility of the IHP in Africa and to build strategic partnerships with key regional water stakeholders in providing support to Africa member states. He was the Officer in Charge of Nairobi office from October 2012 to December 2012 and of Maputo office from 10th July 2013 to 30th May 2014. He joined UNESCO in 2006 as science specialist at Accra office. Before joining UNESCO, he worked at AGRHYMET in Niamey for more than eight years as regional hydrologist, head of water unit and scientific coordinator. He worked for three years with IRD as researcher and visiting scientist. He has been member of various committees, panels for among others: WWC, WASAG, AGRHYMET, UN-WATER Africa, IPCC, WWDR, GEF. He has many years of research and teaching and author of more than 50 scientific papers.

Alternate representative :
First Name : Alice Last Name : Aureli
Title : Dr. Postion : Chief of section groundwater and Water for Human Settlements
Nationality : Italy Gender :
Email : a.aureli@unesco.org
background : Ms Alice Aureli is a Water Resources expert, she holds a PhD in Hydrogeology obtained in 1989 at the University of Rome, Italy. She has over 30 years of experience in groundwater resources management and governance. In addition to his many years of research and teaching, she serves since 2010 as Chief of the UNESCO’s Groundwater Systems and Water for Human Settlements Section. She is a staff member of the Secretariat of the UNESCO's intergovernmental International Hydrological Programme (IHP), and she is responsible for, amongst others, the International Shared Aquifers Resources Management (ISARM) initiative. This role has led her to supervise the work of the interdisciplinary group that advised the UN International Law Commission to prepare the Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers. An important aspect of her work has been on scientific and policy-related issues surrounding groundwater governance. Ms Aureli established long-term partnerships with international donor institutions and is in charge of a large portfolio of groundwater-resources related projects coordinated closely with UNESCO’s Member states. At UNESCO, she was also instrumental in reinforcing the activities for the mapping of groundwater resources of the world. During her academic career, Ms Aureli has promoted cooperation with national and international research institutes, associations and academic networks. Recipient of several international awards she continues to lecture regularly on a variety of postgraduate courses and coordinate masters studies and PhD thesis in the field of transboundary waters, hydrogeology and groundwater resources management. Ms Aureli is the author of a large number of publications and has also served as editor of various international journals. She has extensive experience working in Africa, Arab States and Latin America acting, during her career in UNESCO, as regional focal point for the coordination of the IHP programme secretariat at the UNESCO HQs.

Organisation statement:
Please describe the involvement of your organisation within the World Water Council and state how long it has been involved in World Water Council activities : UNESCO is one of the constituent members of the WWC and has been a very active partner providing support to the WWC actions by mobilizing scientific communities and linking them to professionals and civil society and decision makers. The International Hydrological Programme of UNESCO (IHP) has played a historic role since the first World Water Forum (WWForum) in 1997 and has been recognized as one of the key players in the thematic, political and regional processes of the Forum, leading and organizing themes, topics and sessions on a regular basis. The World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) has presented several of its World Water Development Reports (WWDR) at the Forum with high level launching by Director General of UNESCO. For the most recent editions of World Water Forum, UNESCO was a member of the International Steering Committee (ISC) of the WWF5 held in Istanbul and UNESCO was actively involved in the preparation of the Forum and Forum’s Political and Thematic processes. UNESCO served as the Co-Chair of the Forum’s Political Process Committee. During the WWF6 held in Marseille, UNESCO-IHP reaffirmed its leadership role in promoting water sciences, education and capacity building. UNESCO led the coordination of several major thematic Priorities for Action (PFA) and Condition for Success (CS). UNESCO, through IHP, UNESCO-IHE and WWAP, organized: 27 Thematic and Targets sessions under these thematic priority areas; two sessions in Latin America and Asia regional processes; and 12 side-events. UNESCO participated in High Level Roundtable on Water-related Disasters. In addition, UNESCO contributed to numerous sessions and side-events. UNESCO-IHP has been a major contributor to the 7th WWF, acting as the Lead Coordinator of various core themes and UNESCO organized organization of a series of 30 thematic sessions, 8 science and technology process sessions, 5 regional process sessions, 10 side events and 3 special sessions. At the 8th World Water Forum in Brasilia, in addition for UNESCO to be a theme coordinator, UNESCO´s Water Family participated in or contributed to the organization of 117 sessions and side events out of a total of 354 events of different types. UNESCO was thus present in one third of all Forum events and in 7 of 9 of the Forum’s Themes, and throughout 14 out of 30 sub-themes. The events organized by or with the active participation of IHP as panellist drew well over 1000 participants. The Forum’s closing ceremony highlighted UNESCO’s role in supporting the Youth Forum, part of the Forum’s Citizens Process, and the successful leadership in the Regional Process for Latin America. UNESCO headquarters hosted meetings of political processes. For the 9th WWF, UNESCO has supported the first preparatory workshop held in Dakar in June 2018 and is committed to support the host country Senegal and to be actively involvement in the organization. UNESCO and WWC had also organized jointly various sessions during other international water events such as World Water Week. Finally, UNESCO representatives have been active in all WWC working bodies for which they were members.
For what reasons do you wish your organisation to have a seat on the Board of Governors ? UNESCO as constituent member of WWC is committed to work towards the achievement of our common goals and as a member of the WWC Board of Governors in the coming years we would be continue been committed for our strong involvement in WWC activities. In particular, we would be strongly involved in the preparation of the next World Water Forum in 2021 in Dakar, Senegal and in the implementation of the new WWC strategy. UNESCO has been already engaged with the Organizing committee of WWF9 in supporting the preparation of the Forum. Indeed the first preparatory workshop held in June 2018 and supported by UNESCO is a clear testimony of our willingness to be strongly involved more than the other editions. The fact that the current Chairperson of IHP for the next two years is from Senegal is a great opportunity of synergy and collaboration between UNESCO and WWC for the organization of the 9th World Water Forum. In addition to mobilize all its large water network (57 chairs and 37 centres on water) including WWAP, all the field offices in Africa would be also mobilized in contributing to the preparation and the success of the next world water forum. The UNESCO large water network is fully engaged in promoting the implementation of effective water related policies and strategies worldwide, a mission which is commonly shared with WWC.