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A comprehensive approach to building a water
partnership for sustainable development
Yoonjin Kim, Director, Korea Water Forum
T
he lobbying by multiple stakeholders to recognise
the scale of global water challenges has succeeded
in making water partnership one of the top priori-
ties in the achievement of sustainable development. Good
governance plays an important role in the development
process, but its management is impossible without a bond
of empathy concerning the issues at stake.
From follow-up to creation
The Korea Water Forum (KWF), a member of the interna-
tional water community since 2005, has made huge efforts to
unite multiple levels of stakeholder for the purpose of build-
ing a sustainable water partnership.
Since global efforts contributed to the creation of the 7th
World Water Forum in 2015, various follow-up actions have
been mooted to realise the forum’s core value – implementa-
tion. Many activities have now been planned to bring best
practice and relevant technologies to bear in response to
resolutions on imminent water challenges, and the Korean
government has upheld the forum’s core value by implement-
ing change, using the diverse ideas collected there.
The forum emphasised that change had to come from prac-
tice rather than discourse; the application of technologies
rather than the needs of new technologies; developed policies
to deal with regional cases rather than a lack of well developed
policies. To realise this change, advice and ideas frommultiple
stakeholders with their abundant experience were essential.
In preparation for full scale follow-up action, the Korean
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MoLIT)
formed a committee along with the Ministry of Environment
(ME), Daegu City, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, and KWF
to organise the Korea International Water Week (KIWW)
in 2016. 14 international advisory committee members were
selected to assist, and leading Ministries including MoLIT
and ME, pooled their experience and knowledge to create
what turned out to be a valuable event.
The KIWW invited diverse stakeholders from various
fields and with multiple levels of expertise including high-
level decision-makers as well as young, non-professionals and
contributors from outside of the water industries. The forum
focused on solution provision through various programmes,
each of which was designed to emphasise participatory
processes and preparation procedures to ensure that each
would maintain a case history of solution implementation.
The KIWWwas launched in 2016 with the theme of ‘Water
Partnership for Sustainable Development’. Four pillars of
Heads of state joining at the 7th World Water Forum
Image: KWF