25th session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) - FAO remarks on the agenda item “Building climate-resilient water institutions”

Thank you for the opportunity. It is always an honour to intervene before the Committee. Let me first commend the authors of the paper, which highlights the critical role of governance and institutions in addressing complex challenges of extreme climate events and rising water scarcity that severely affect people's livelihoods,

The proposed index has a value of providing a clear model enabling comparison across countries. At the same time, it captures institutional design, not institutional performance and delivery.

Many countries do have legal and institutional frameworks aligned with the most advanced international principles of IWRM and yet face huge challenges in implementing them in practice with institutional fragmentation and policy incoherences persisting, and data systems remaining inadequate. This makes it difficult to anticipate climate risks, coordinate across sectors or allocate water fairly and efficiently.

Addressing these challenges is complex and requires joint efforts.

Agriculture is central to these efforts - not only because it is seriously affected by climate and water constraints, but also because it is the world's largest sectoral water user. As such, it constitutes a crucial part of the solution.

Let me turn to what Food and Agriculture Organization is doing to support countries in strengthening water governance and climate resilient institutions.

Over time, FAO's engagement with countries has evolved from field projects to a systems approach linking data, science, technology and policy and governance support.

For example, in the Near East and North Africa - one of the most water stressed regions - FAO works with Governments and river basin authorities to analyse water governance, and facilitate dialogue, leading to strengthened coordination across sectors.

In Rwanda, Senegal and Sri Lanka FAO has supported governments in conducting water tenure assessment - examining some of the factors highlighted in the paper. The assessment is ongoing in Colombia and Thailand.

FAO also has several tools including the Water Productivity Portal, drought impact assessment platform and AQUASTAT, the Climate risk Toolbox and Climate Risk Screening that combine water and climate science, governance diagnostics and climate-finance readiness.

Since 2022, FAO has been convening annual Rome Water Dialogue to advance collective action on sustainable water management for resilient agriculture and food security.

We are also facilitating the Water Tenure Global Dialogue, which aims to identify principles for the responsible governance of water tenure - a crucial step toward improving sustainable and equitable water management and allocation systems.

Given our long engagement in climate and water governance, FAO very much welcomes today's discussion and the efforts to link climate resilience and water institutions, and support countries in integrated planning and learning.

In conclusion, we must also be honest about the challenges in pursuing this objective. The paper could further highlight the importance of interests, values, culture and mindsets mentioned several times over the last two days, and how they shape climate resilience and water institutions in practice. Only by combining formal institutional analysis with political economy insights can we fully understand why climate resilient water governance functions remain so difficult to implement and support countries going forward.

I thank you.