UNDP Associate Administrator visits Geneva to close the investment gap on water and advance collaboration with partners around social justice and SDGs financing

February 9, 2023

Photo: 2023 UNDP\ UNDP Associate Administrator Usha Rao-Monari and Director General of ILO, Gilbert F.Houngbo at ILO headquarters Geneva.

Switzerland, Geneva 7-9 February 2023

On 8-9 February 2023, the UNDP Associate Administrator, Usha Rao-Monari completed a mission to Geneva to participate in the Roundtable Discussion on Financing Water and meet with senior officials from UN agencies and the private sector.

Hosted by the OECD, the 9^th Round table discussion on Financing Water is a global public-private platform which aims to promote increased financing and investment to water security and sustainable growth, notably in the lead up to the UN 2023 Water Conference (22-24 March 2023 New York).

During the roundtable, the UNDP Associate Administrator facilitated a thematic discussion on changing finance for water and the role of development finance to improve water security, water governance and sustainable development.

Together with Mariana Mazzucato, Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, they also reflected on how to close the investment gap to anchor equity in water economics and tackle the water crisis.

Photo: UNDP\2023. Left to right, Mariana Mazzucato, Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose and Associate Administrator UNDP, Usha Rao-Monari.

“There are new innovations in policy instruments, financial instruments and social instruments that we should consider as the water community”- Usha Rao-Monari, Associate Administrator UNDP

In the margins of the round-table, the UNDP Associate Administrator also met with Gilbert Houngbo, the Director General of the ILO and Chair of UN-Water, to further the advance employment opportunities and social protection to leave no one behind. They also discussed policy responses to informality and to the future of work, and opportunities for ILO-UNDP collaboration under the Global Coalition for Social Justice.

While in Geneva, the UNDP Associate Administrator also met with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the WTO, co-Chairs of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, in which Ms. Rao-Monari is a member.

Photo: 2023 UNDP\ Left to right, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the WTO and Associate Administrator UNDP, Usha Rao-Monari.

In the run-up to the UN Water Conference, Usha Rao-Monari also met with Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). They reviewed progress around the joint UNDP-WMO-UNEP Systemic Observations Financing Facility/SOFF, and UNDP and WMO’s close collaboration through the Alliance for Hydromet Development to support developing countries leverage cutting edge climate and weather information, notably to improve early warning systems and water management.

Photo: UNDP\2023. Left to right, Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization and Associate Administrator UNDP, Usha Rao-Monari.

Lastly, the UNDP Associate Administrator also met with senior representatives from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), from the World Economic Forum (WEF) as well as leading representatives from the sustainable finance community, including Patrick Odier, President of the Building Bridges initiative in which UNDP is a key member, recalling UNDP’s work around SDG standards and SDG investor maps.

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For more information:

Watch here the 9^th Round Table Discussion.

UNDP and Water: UNDP is currently supporting interventions on water in 140 countries across all six regions of the world, with financing of more than US$3.9 billion, in partnership with more than 16 partners including the Global Environment Facility and the Green Climate Fund. A further $18 billion of co-financing is either channelled directly through, or leveraged by, UNDP for countries in pursuit of their Sustainable Development Goals. As custodian of the largest freshwater and transboundary portfolio in the UN system, UNDP is engaged in applied water management across all the Sustainable Development Goals, in portfolios as diverse as Nature, Climate, Energy, Waste, Inclusive Growth, Governance, Health, Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Finance.