Me! (at World Water Week??????)

It is almost impossible to describe the impact of World Water Week on me. But I can tell you that it has made me realise the necessity to become an expert in potential solutions, read much more and constantly challenge my own mindset. It was both exhilarating and humbling. My learning curve, the rate of new ideas bombarding me and re-evaluation of what I would say when I spoke at World Water Day changed every five seconds.

I realised that althought I have become very active in youth advocacy for Sustainable Development and attended relevant events....

I have ignored the complex interconnections in the water, energy and food security nexus. Water will affect food security. Water is increasingly volatile and this also a vital strand of the Sustainable Development debate that I have been ignoring. It is inexcusable.

Furthermore, while I had numerous opportunities to express myself during World Water week, my greatest concern is that my contributions were not concrete. I have spent years advocating for youth involvement beyond the token one. I have worked hard during CSD-19 to ensure that we had the background knowledge, could quote past agreements / conventions and could reference relevant materials. But when it came to water, I was not as well read and the knowledge gap was tangible.

Important reading???

Climate change, water and food security:

This FAO water report provides a comprehensive overview of the water-food nexus. It summarises current knowledge about climate change and its implications regarding water availability for agriculture, and analyses the impacts on local and national food security :http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/i2096e/i2096e.pdf

UN-Water Seminar: World Water Day 2012 - Water and Food Security: Call for Solutions

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