CEO Water Mandate Urges Global Collaboration, Releases Guide

(Stockholm, 4 September 2013) – Issuing a call for global collaboration and collective action to address escalating water and sanitation challenges, the UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate today convened its annual multi-stakeholder conference at World Water Week in Stockholm.

More than 100 senior delegates representing business, civil society, UN agencies, and the public sector attended the conference, which was organized to further the CEO Water Mandate’s work in advancing corporate water stewardship policies and practices.

Opening the conference, Gavin Power, Deputy Director of the UN Global Compact and Head of the CEO Water Mandate, emphasized the importance of water and sanitation in the context of the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda. “All of us here have an enormous opportunity to raise the importance of water and sanitation issues with global policy makers and to influence the ultimate global sustainable development framework – while at the same time highlighting how responsible business and corporate water stewardship can contribute to actually achieving long-term global objectives.

Mr. Power stated that global water and sanitation challenges demand higher levels of collaboration and collective action, and called on all stakeholders to work closely together in the coming years and decades.

Mr. Power also noted the UN Global Compact’s recent report to the UN Secretary-General on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, which proposes ten sustainable development goals – with water and sanitation as a stand-alone goal with suggested targets.

At the conference, the CEO Water Mandate officially launched its Guide to Water-Related Collective Action – a resource designed to help companies develop and engage in collective action and partnerships at both the global and local levels.

Jason Morrison, Technical Director of the CEO Water Mandate and Program Director at the Pacific Institute, noted that the Guide will be highly relevant to the CEO Water Mandate’s Water Action Hub – an online partnership platform launched in 2012 that is designed to catalyze collective action efforts in specific river basins and watersheds around the world.

The Guide was produced in partnership with Ross Strategic; the Pacific Institute; Pegasys; and the Water Futures Partnership.

In addition to the topic of collective action, the conference focused on two other CEO Water Mandate workstreams:  water and human rights, and corporate water disclosure. In the first half of 2014, the CEO Water Mandate plans to launch its operational guide for business on water and human rights, as well as its global guidance on corporate water disclosure.

On 19 September 2013, the CEO Water Mandate will convene a special session on Corporate Water Stewardship and the Post-2015 Agenda during the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York (19-20 September).

• View Agenda
• Download the Guide to Water-Related Collective Action

About the CEO Water Mandate
Launched in July 2007 by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the CEO Water Mandate is a public-private initiative designed to assist companies in the development, implementation and disclosure of water sustainability policies and practices. Led by the United Nations Global Compact in partnership with the Pacific Institute, the CEO Water Mandate offers a unique action platform to share best and emerging practices and to forge multi-stakeholder partnerships to address the problems of access to water and sanitation. The CEO Water Mandate has been endorsed by nearly 100 companies from a range of industries and sectors. www.ceowatermandate.org

Contacts

Gavin Power
UN Global Compact
powerg@un.org

Jason Morrison
Pacific Institute
jmorrison@pacinst.org