 under the IWA Young Water Professionals. There's really no point being too formal amongst the company of friends, but we would like to remind you of a few housekeeping rules before we get started with the program. And we're going to do that while we are accepting more participants for joining us today. Firstly, as you may have noticed, this event is being recorded. It will be available on demand on the IWA website, including all of the presentation slides, which we trust the speakers have secured copyright permissions for. Moreover, the IWA, the speakers' opinions, conclusions and recommendations are presented by the speakers today are the sole responsibility of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect IWA opinion. Please, we do encourage everyone to be as active as possible on the chat box. We'd love to hear your thoughts while we are going through the program. If you have any questions or clarifications at all, please, you know how to do this on Zoom. Please also feel free to introduce yourself briefly on the chat, state your name, your role, the country you're joining from, and why don't you add a fun fact about yourself? Just to make it interesting. Another thing that we encourage everyone to do is to keep their cameras open if your internet bandwidth allows. It goes without saying that if you're not speaking, please go on mute so as not to distract our speakers. For our speakers, there is no need to share slides because we already have all of your presentations as you have sent them. Right, let's get down to a few introductions. My name is Yang Villa. I am one of the members of the YWP Steering Committee and I will be one of your hosts and wonderators today. And I will be with Isabella, who everyone here knows. Isabella, of course, is the IWA Membership Engagement Officer. We have invited for today three fantastic speakers and panelists. You will get to know each of them in a bit, but to mention who they are, they are Kulud, Mahmood and Maria who are all joining us from different parts of the world as is everyone else. And we'll have more introductions from each of them later on. At this point, we want to show you first what we're going to do today. And that is just a brief overview of the YWP community as it stands at this year's end, but also to talk about a few of the conference reports that some of the YWPs have attended in the recent months and that will be facilitated by our three speakers and panelists. At the end of that, we'll have time to just have a quick chat, Q&A and open forum with our fantastic speakers. At this point, I will now turn you over to Isabella who will talk about IWA and the YWP community. Thank you, Yank, thank you for this. So as Yank mentioned, I'm the one responsible for the Young Water Professionals within the International Water Association. And what I prepared today is just a brief overview about what is the International Association but also how do we work with this amazing Young Water Professionals community? And the reason that we decided to do this because we have attendees that are not yet members but it's also good to remind all the young people that are working in the water sector about what IWA is offering and how we are supporting this engagement about Young Water Professionals in the water sector. So first of all, what is IWA? What is the International Water Association? Here we say that IWA is by members and for members because we are a membership-based organization and we are recognized as an international reference and a source of knowledge and focus on creating innovative and solutions that are sustainable for water resources. We have this amazing global community of academics, people working in the industry and water professionals among others that are really passionate about creating the change in the water sector. So we aim to achieve and to be this catalyst for innovation, knowledge, sharing and recognizing the best practice that we have in the sector, what other organizations are doing and also sharing the opinion of the water leaders that we have in the sector. And for those that are not aware, IWA works with four years timeline timeframe in terms of strategic goals, our currently one started in 2019 and we will go until 2024. So we aim to create this engaged and balanced membership, being the source of this leading as water knowledge, creating space for professionals to exchange their knowledge, being this bridge between research and practice and of course supporting the implementation of all the assages. And we achieve this through the system approach. As you can see, we work all around the globe. We have members that work via the specialist groups, the clusters, they are attending the forums, the test groups, the YWP counter chapters, the government members, and they all come from different areas of the water sector. So university consultants, regulators, water industry utilities. And we connect then via our platform, our programs, our projects, our journals and books and other publications that we produce, of course. And our amazing congress, the last one we held in Copenhagen, and I see that some of the members today attended in person and they enjoy it as much as possible. And in terms of where we are located, as you can see, we are all around the globe and our members are really connected with the water resources in their region and how they can produce this change and impact the water sector. Just some information about our members in terms of the active members that we have, the corporate members, the university, the government members and also the network members. And I receive a lot of questions in terms of, Isabella, why should I become a member? Why should I be involved in activities? Why should I be a volunteer in part of a chapter? And I try to summarize information with this engagement journey. So since they start until you become a leader in the association, but also in the water sector. So if you're not a member, you don't have access to propose communities and to represent IWA nationally. But as soon as you become this, you can join this leadership partners that we have and being responsible for the changes that you want to achieve in the water sector. And in terms of the communities, I know that most of you are interested in the Young Water Professionals community that we have, but also want to highlight that we have the government members, the distinguished fellows, the specialist groups, and we see these communities really connected and I really support the Young Water Professionals getting involved with in the other communities that we have with IWA because I believe that this is the way that they can influence our decisions and also helping us to understand how we can improve and get better in terms of supporting and promoting this meaningful engagement of Young Water Professionals. And without further delays, I want to highlight the community and also the role that the steering committee plays on this. As you can see here in the slides, we have this amazing steering committee that was recently elected and they are the one helping us with our mission, our mission to empower YWPs, but also to develop this brand and network that really creates a high value opportunities for YWPs to participate in the water sector. And just a quick reminder, IWC considers Young Water Professionals, all the members that are aged 35 or below, and they come from this multidisciplinary backgrounds on this. And if there is some questions about structure, how we engage then, we have this framework that I'm showing here in this slide and as you can see in the national level, we have the counter chapters. I recently checked it, we have 38 IWA branded chapters. So you can see the impact that we have around the world. And then in the international level, we have the steering committee that I just mentioned that are helping us to understand the needs and how we can enhance this new generation of Young Water Professionals. So a quick, all the chapters that we have, as I mentioned, we have 38 IWA branded chapters. And I also added some of the photos from our recent events, recent in-person events that were held in Copenhagen. We have the photos from the emerging water leaders and our YWP dinner in Copenhagen. If you are part of the Young Water Professionals Community, you can join the chapters, you can join the government members committee, you can network with members via the IWA Connect platform. You can apply to be part of the steering committee, the Young Water Professionals Steering Committee, join their subcommittees, engage in organizing some of our events and connect with senior professionals. So there are a lot of opportunities for you. If you want to know more, feel free to reach out to me. I've shared my contact details below. Feel free to reach out in this. And in terms of recognizing the work that young people are carrying out in the water sector, I'd like to remind all of you about the IWA Youth Leadership Awards, that we really try to highlight the best of what Young Water Professionals are doing. And this is just one example from Dr. Siddhartha Roy that won the award in 2020. So, Yung, I will hand over to you now. Thanks a lot, Isabella, for that overview. It's been an exciting year for us and I'm thrilled that we are entering a new year. Hopefully new members, more country chapters, and the next time we do these get-togethers, there will be a lot more exchanges. Our next speaker, the first of hours three, is Colud, Charfi, who is from WWF North Africa in the Water Youth Network. And Colud will be talking to us about COP 27, which, as you all know, has wrapped up a few weeks ago. Colud, over to you. Thank you, thank you, Isabella, and thank you, Yung, for having me today. It is really great pleasure for me to speak about COP 27 and the water outcomes in particular. So I will try to be brief and give simpler, let's say outcomes. But before doing that, I will try to mention some more general points or more general outcomes that generated from COP 27 this year. So the discussions that are, the two weeks during COP were dominated by a few themes. The most important ones were loss and damage and the creation of funds related to loss and damage. And then there is the Cronivia Joint Work on Agriculture and also the mitigation work program. So these are the couple of themes that dominated COP 27. And by the end of COP, which, yeah, which ended, I think COP 27, Insha'al-Masheikh is either the longest or the second longest COP in the history of COP's. So it was prolonged for, I think for 40 hours. So it ended two days later than the usual closing dates. And on the day of its, or one of the main outcomes that generated from COP 27 is the creation of funds related to loss and damage. So developing countries have been seeking financial assistance for loss and damage, which is the money needed to rescue or rebuild the physical and social infrastructure impacted by extreme water events. So during this COP, there was an agreement on a fund related to loss and damage, which is, as we all know, is a major milestone. So however, there is no official agreement on yet or on how the finance should be provided or on how it should come from. I think there will be a transitional committee to make recommendation regarding this at COP 28 next year. So we will see regarding this. And another point is that COP 27 also finalized the mitigation work program. And they also agreed on an extra four years on the Korean-Evia joint work on agriculture. So now back to water. So for water, the biggest outcome or the biggest milestone is that for the first time water was included in the final declaration, which is the Sharma-Sheikh implementation plan. So in the declaration, they recognized the critical role of protecting and conserving and restoring water systems and water-related ecosystem and delivering climate adaptation benefits and co-benefits. And they also urged parties to further integrate water into adaptation efforts. However, as you can see, water was only included within the adaptation discussion. It wasn't mentioned in any mitigation discussions. Next, also related to water, not directly, but under the agricultural theme, there was the establishment of the four-year Sharma-Sheikh joint work on implementation of climate action on agricultural and food security, which relates indirectly to water. So this is related to the official outcomes of COP 27. Other, let's say, important events or important outcomes related to water is, next slide, please, is that there was the first ever water day. So for the official COP 27, featured a special day on water with water-related discussions across the conference. So this is something, this is considered the milestone for water as it is the first ever water day. There was also the water pavilion. The water pavilion was big during this COP. It has many sessions and many events. They were organized by also a lot of partners and it features a lot of high-level sessions. So the opening of the water pavilion was done jointly by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of Tajikistan. And so we can see that this shows that there is, shows the link to the UN 2023 water conference. So the official opening of the water pavilion was a high-level ceremony on itself. It featured the prime minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the president of Tajikistan. Next. So it's this. Yes, so this is, yeah, going on to the main initiatives related to water that were created or that were launched during COP 27. So a big number of them were either launched in the water pavilion or during the water day on the 14th. And among the most important one is the, an initiative launched by the COP 27 presidency in partnership with the world, with the WMO. So it's an action on water adaptation and resilience initiative. So this initiative will champion inclusive cooperation to address water-related challenges and solution across climate change adaptation. And it will aim to create successful outcome at the UN water conference. So the UN initiative will focus on three priority actions. It will aim to decrease water losses worldwide and approve water supply. Purpose and support implementing mutually agreed policy and methods for cooperative water-related adaptation actions and then promote cooperation and interlinkages between water and climate. Another initiatives that were also launched is the next piece is the Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation Initiative, which is the FAST initiative. Next slide. So it was launched by FAO. And its goal is to implement concrete action that would result in improving the quality and quantity of climate finance contribution to transform agricultural and food system by 2030. So the FAST initiative will be a multi-stakeholder partnership acting as an accelerator to transform agri-food system to deliver triple winds, so for people climate and for nature. Other, let's say, initiatives that were launched, next slide, is there was the launch of the African Cities Water Adaptation Fund and then the G7 countries launched the Global Shield Program with more than $200 million in initial funding for the insurance and disaster protection following floods, drought and hurricanes in vulnerable countries. So these are the initial or the main outcomes related to water. They are not a lot related to other themes, but the fact that water is featured for the first time into the final declaration is a big success and we need to build on that. The fact that for the first time also that we had an official or a water day is also a success. Also during COP there was a lot of buildup or there were a lot of sessions that linked COP 27 to the U1-2023 water conference. So this was also great, but like I said, there are not a lot of outcomes and let's hope that we can build on those for the next COP to come. Thank you. Thanks, Kud. Makes me personally want and wish that I was also there to have witnessed all of these exciting news and updates, but thank you for delivering those great news to us and synthesizing what that means to the water sector. We're going to reserve, I'm sure, the burning questions that we've got from the participants for later and we do encourage the participants to please type their questions on the chat box, Isabella and myself. We will be taking charge of making note of those questions and raising them at the Q&A. Let's move on now to our next presenter. Maria will be talking about the groundwater summit with the theme of making the invisible visc... Maria? Thank you. Thank you, young. Thank you, Isabella. And International Water Association for the invitation is a pleasure to be here with you all today. So I'm going to talk a little bit about the groundwater summit, making the invisible visible. That was the first summit for groundwater. So it is a very important subject. Now I'm going to introduce the theme, please, next. So this year was the year of groundwater. A task force was made by UN Water and it was co-coordinated by UNESCO and International Groundwater Resource Assessment Center. UNESCO coordinated the organization and participated in a series of key events related to groundwater during this year, events that were related to water or environment that could be an instance to talk and to debate about groundwater. And the call for this year started at the World Water Day and a very important report was launched. This one that I printed the cover, it isn't on my right side, groundwater, making the invisible visible. This report is important because if you want to know a little bit about the state of art of groundwater, you need to read and see this report because it provides important information, updates and research collected and that regarding water, groundwater, and their experts. So next, please. Introducing the team, the thematic sessions and the event. The end of this year, making the invisible visible ended with the groundwater summit that happened last week at UNESCO in Paris. I participated in person and it was a huge experience. It was three days event, but the first day of the event was a site event with several ground tables composed by experts, hydrologists, and members of agents and youth. And this is very important to highlight because the opportunity to engage youth and the experts, the members of agencies, politicians, members of delegations, it is an important way to move forward and achieve important action and projects for the future of groundwater. And the other two days were for many topics related to groundwater. The first one, data and information, development capacity, innovation, kindness and governance. And then second day, thematic sessions like regional dialogues, transmissory ground waters and the closing ceremony that it was very important to. So next, please. The main points that I could talk to you about today, it is that the event was composed by UNESCO delegations, especially the delegation from Indonesia because they are going to host the World Water Forum and experts, multi stakeholders, off-water sector, civil society, also youth and the panels aim to inform these participants and alert them to the importance of groundwater, the exchange experience from all over the world and the foundations and use of these waters in different places of the world and summarize all these events that happened during all this year. As we already know, groundwater is 98% of the liquid freshwater available in the world and also has a great potential to provide benefits and it is a key to climate change adaptation. So thinking about these key points, there are other points that I could highlight. All the participants of the panels recognize the importance of groundwater but despite of all the advances of this year and the last decades regarding groundwater, these waters is still poorly understood and saying that groundwater is not visible and it is pretty clear by the title of the event making this more visible, it is a clear point but a huge challenge because provide knowledge and capacity to manage groundwater, it is a challenge when we are talking about a resource that we can see easily and the panel of capacity highlighted the importance to create measurement standards to the same reservoir or several aquifers or groundwater and this is also a big challenge. How to create measurement and tools to this measurement standards and when we are talking about a resource that it is so specific and that we can see easily and create tools for it. So the panel of data and information I tested something that I thought I worked with groundwater unless I've been working with groundwater in the last few years and it is pretty clear for us that we have a lack of data and information for groundwater national and international instance and this must change because we can achieve policies, concrete policies, public policies and engage the different sectors and levels that are required to manage these waters if we don't know the data, the information, we don't have data that it is compatible with the reality. So the innovation finance panels concluded that groundwater must be a priority. In the context of growing water scarcity in many parts of the world, the vast potential of groundwater and the need to manage it carefully can no longer be overlooked and this is something that we must change. So, next slide please. So if you are thinking, talking about the things that we must change and policies and thinking about governance, groundwater governance, this would precisely find a transformation the conclusions of all these panels of innovation, data, finances and all the discussions of the summit in transforming them in public policies. And this is very difficult to happen. It is not an easy task. So, I will talk just a little bit about a panel that is very important for me, especially because I work with this subject that are the Transmoldary Ground Waters. And this topic, I think it is a good example of the groundwater treatment because we have 4,468 identified Transmoldary Equifers and Equifers Systems all over the world, but we only have six formal arrangements for them. And we also have a new conversation and arrangement for Mauditani Senegal Equifer. But this scenario must change because it is a huge difference between the identified Transmoldary Equifers and Equifers Systems and the formal arrangements. And we can conclude that the ground waters are still a second level in instance of international agenda. And this must change. This is one of the topics of the summit that was debated in a lot of the panels. So, my final considerations of the whole theme and the summit is next. Yeah, thank you. It is the year to make the visible, visible was an important initiator to ground waters really emerged in international agenda. But the summit has a closure of the year bringing together participants from different areas of the globe from different sectors and from civil society, agencies, and delegations. And youth, it is an important way to seek real commitment with these waters. The participation and the space given to the youth, it was an important step to look forward at the challenge regarding ground waters and also to achieve concrete actions because it is the future of these waters. And the summit complied with the proposal to take a unison speech until the UN water conference next year. I think this was the main goal of the summit. Create a statement that all the participants could commit with it and take that concerns to the UN water conference next year. But also, I saw a few challenges that we need to look if we are trying to change the reality of groundwater. There are some of them are create groundwater and surface water management together because in the end of the day, surface or groundwater, we are talking about water. So the management of these waters must be treated together. The participation of subnational actors, it is essential if we're talking about ground waters because the public policies and politics that emerge from this conference like the summit UN water conference, they are all going to be applied at the local level. And if we are trying to change this reality from the international to the local level, we need to come with the participation of subnational actors. So this was my brief presentation of the theme. Thank you very much. Thank you, Maria. That was very enlightening and a quick summary of what happened. I'm sure there were a lot of interesting discussions shared during the groundwater summit. And thank you, Nesh, for sharing some of those notes also on the chat. We'll have more time later during the Q&A to go through all of these insights. If you have any other questions, please feel free to drop them on the chat box. Our final speaker slash panelist for today is Mahmoud. And he will be talking about the groundwater family community on the global water partnership toolbox. Mahmoud. Many thanks. Trust your... There you go. Yes, thank you so much for the introduction. And also I'm really glad that I managed to connect to hear the amazing summary of the summit, which is something, of course, like made me really, really happy because it took us almost 18 months to do all the preparations and it really worked very well. And I'm happy and specific to hear about that youth participation was quite something that people would be happy to tell about after the summit because I think I was, to be considered, the only youth part advocating for having more and more engagement for our Groundwater Youth Network. And as you know, the Groundwater Youth Network of UNESCO started in Dakar earlier this year in March. And since then they have been doing really an amazing job and they started doing all the preparations during the summit throughout the hub. The youth forum itself, the amazing session was very diverse, so glad to hear. Thank you so much. But yes, here today I'm not talking anymore about the summit itself, but I'm talking about one of the outputs that we are glad to announce as well during the session, which is our collaboration with GWP regarding the Groundwater Community that was just released on the Groundwater, the GWP's toolbox platform. We managed this UNESCO HP and our category two center IGRAC to launch this community during the summit itself. We launched during the summit day and then it has been going throughout the three days of the summit itself, which I believe we were glad to announce it because it's somewhere we can again connect what we are calling the Groundwater family. And as you know, the platform is interesting with some new ideas where we can actually have something to engage with other practitioners in the Groundwater family itself being a connecting tool, like you can call it I don't know, the Twitter of Groundwater or the Twitter of Water family. And that's why it's really interesting that we can all share ideas, share discussions, do some surveys. So if you can go to the next slide, please. As you know, the toolbox itself, it's really interesting because for me it connects, it teaches and it gives you an opportunity to explore different resources that we're having. We cannot share all our ideas or our community, we cannot have a space that everybody can just drop their ideas, wherever they are and hear some feedback from each of the water different fields. But however, now we want to really to have something for the Groundwater family. That's why we created this specific group within the toolbox. And it's just for me, it's most importantly, it connects the water practitioners and the Groundwater practitioners around the globe. You can feel free to drop any message to anybody. I believe it has been going, it's very new. As you know, it's less than a week. But I think we will really depend on the platform soon again, like starting of course in the next year throughout the whole 2023 and 24, because we believe now we're having our own tool to communicate directly and to push some announcements to our people. That being said, as you know, during the summit, if any one of you connected, we used an interesting tool for online participants to make sure that engagement is well supported with the Huvva. And Huvva is of course a software that we use to engage between the in-presence participants, online ones, but it has a very short time span, which is three months. So after three months, everything will be closed unfortunately, because it's not our UNESCO tool, it's the paid tool or feature that we are using. So that's why we're calling now on all the participants that who have already engaged enough is still, you have two months, if you wish to enjoy a bit, like the discussion that we had, see the questions and answers that we had on the Huvva, platform, but please make sure to connect directly to the groundwater toolbox of the groundwater family. If you can go to the next slide, please. Mainly the features and functions of the toolbox where you can interact and exchange, you can share cases studies, you can share your papers, your articles, you can directly send messages to the big figures that you wish to connect with in the groundwater field. I believe we send them an invitation already during the summit where we sending them invitations again while we are sending the thank you messages for attending the summit, of course. It also allows you to access the documents as well as downloading them whenever needed. We will keep also uploading that with our news information, our communication messages, our outcomes, and main messages came out from the summit itself. Of course, we'll be posting some of the main information about the videos, the joint messages, and the speeches whenever possible. So please make sure that you can connect. And it's pretty, very easy. Straightforward in the last slide, please. You can just scan the QR code, join, connect to the family, and or just global water partnership toolbox. You can search and then search on the groundwater family. Easy register takes you like two minutes and then you will be there. There are some discussions that we already initiated and we will keep posting just as a follow up to the summit. Of course, it's taking some time. We're still recovering from the preparation of the summit, but I believe very soon we'll be activating this platform being the only platform where it can gather all the groundwater family. That was all. And I would be glad to answer any questions whenever needed and happy to meet you all. Thank you so much, Isabel, for inviting me to talk here. Thank you. Thank you, Mahmood. That sounds like a very exciting initiative indeed. And I myself will be registering as a user to join that community, that family, as you as you call it. We now come to our Q&A portion and I see a couple of questions being dropped on the chat box. If I could kindly invite all of our participants to go on screen and turn on their cameras if they're able so that we can all see each other while we do this chat. Awesome. Thanks, everyone. Great to see you all. Great to see familiar faces. Let's get cracking. Then shall we, Isabel, starting with the question that we had for Khalood. This was from Anik. Anik, how are you here? I can see him here. Yes, please. Yes, him here, yeah. Anik, feel free to open your mic and do your question. Go for it, Anik. Hello, Isabella. Hello, Yang. Hi, Khalood and everyone in the meeting. Congratulations for this seminar. This is one very needed seminar for the people who weren't able to attend the events in person. A lot of the talks have been lately being going on in Pakistan and likely low-income countries about the last repatriation fund. But what really matters is who are the actors that are going to implement that last repatriation fund? Is it going to be the youth, of course, keeping in mind that this fund would take a decade or a couple of decades to proceed to its full maturity? So would it be the youth from the very beginning or would it be the same old actors who are in the policy-making process or is there a hint of engaging knowledge bodies on this? What's your take on this, Khalood? I would really like to hear that. Yes, so loss and damage has been, I think it has been raised by developing countries since 30 years now. And it's only during this scope that we have an outcome, that loss and damage has officially been put into the agenda and that we have an outcome. The process itself has been, it was really two complicated weeks for loss and damage. It was really hard to reach a decision. The same for like all other important themes for COP27. So the decision was taken, so the outcome is there. There will be a creation of fund for loss and damage. However, there is no, let's say, further information. There will be a transitional committee that will be created. And this transitional committee will make recommendation during COP28 on where this fund could come from, where it can go, or who can be the partners or the funders or the partnerships that could be created, where that money can come from. So there is no, let's say, specific or clear information regarding to this. And definitely there is no information or there is no clear role for youth, of course. So it's gonna, at this stage, there is no, I can't give you a clear answer if I can say so. But hopefully during this, the course of the year, the presidency can make some more action. They can give us more information regarding this. But I mean, for us as youth, maybe we can, because loss and damage, I think it was put on the agenda and we reached an outcome because there was a lot of pressure and there was a lot of action from civil society. So for us youth, we can do the same in order to be included in the discussion or in the actions. Thanks. Thanks, Giliud. I see two thumbs up from Anik that seems to answer the question. Before we go to Gloria's question, if I could just ask Maria to comment on that as well. You mentioned that there were a few bits about the youth and the role of the youth during the groundwater summit. Can you briefly describe what you saw or heard from the summit are the key opportunities for young water professional engagement? Okay. So, yes, sure, Giliud, I can talk briefly about my experience in the participation of youth. I saw the panel of youth in the thematic sessions and it was really interesting to see they talking about their issues, their expectations to participate with the stakeholders and the actions that are going to be made at national and international level to groundwater and they call it all the participants of the summit to engage with them and to create new networks because they really need this network to establish this exchange of experience, information and projects. And I saw the leaders and the delegations really inspired by their speeches because they are trusting that this youth for new ways to approach and the subject of groundwater. So they had this whole session only to tell that their expectations, their projects and what they are developing and discussing regarding groundwater and it was an opportunity to exchange information and create a new network. I hope this will continue in the next summits and conferences. Indeed, that sounds like where the groundwater family and GWP tools and platform will come in. Yes, yes, I think so. I believe we have a question for you, Maria, from Gloria. Okay. Gloria, you can take yourself off mute and ask your question. Thank you so much for this presentation and now the question is in Nairobi specifically, we're having a very large population, water scarcity and poor infrastructure. This has seen a rise in the number of boreholes being dug in order to supply water for this population. And I'm guessing the situation is the same in most urban areas in developing countries. So is there a reason to be worried about sustainability of borehole water and safety of borehole water? Regarding the summit, because I didn't hear. Yeah, in the summit. In the summit, the subject of sustainability in scarcity. This is something that was addressed and really emphasized it during the whole session. The role of groundwater in situations like this in Nairobi. And this was the main goal of the summit to let the participants know and be aware of the role of groundwater in the situations that are going to be usual in the next years in generations. So try to make them aware of the situation and how can we knowing in recognizing this, what can we do to change this reality with the groundwater as a base of the solution in the situation. So I think I saw the discussions like this in the sense and the sustainability and the role of groundwater in climate change adaptation and this situation. I don't know if I answered your question. Thank you Maria and feel free anyone to follow that up with additional questions or clarifications. I'd like to, is there any additional questions or follow up for our speakers? Mainly I do have comments on both events because I was involved in both during COP we had the site event that we organized that we attended online but some of our members were dead in person and our partners organizations. So we follow up all the discussion that we have there and regarding the UNESCO groundwater it was the same. I was following everything that was happening and I was glad to see that both events that they touch in this issue about engaging youth in different levels from organizing that event but also to have like a specific place for them. Khalid just mentioned in the chat regarding the youth day and how they had this special envoy for youth during COP but Mahmood mentioned during his presentation about the youth photo that was held during the groundwater summit. And this all highlights the water sector and understand that youth is important but now the question lies on how we unite these different stakeholders considering that youth is also a stakeholder but also how we manipulate engaged then in the discussions. I think that is a matter now about how and I'm really looking forward to see how the Tajik and the Netherlands government they are pushing this during the UN 20th century water conference. That would be something to look forward to how the youth are making a stand in the UN water conference and what actually comes out of that as Aneed puts in the chat. Hopefully the next year should be tokenism free for the youth and isn't that the role really of the YWP network. I wanna turn to Mahmood for a second and get him to talk about how UNESCO is doing that on a broader scale, not just for involving them through the global family for groundwater. How else can the youth be involved with the UNESCO's efforts with respect to water security Mahmood? Yes, can you hear me now? Yes, we can. Now we cannot. I think I've been lost. The groundwater use network, which it was a marsh and actually the idea behind this launch is that whenever we had an opportunity to engage youth through groundwater being like because I'm working in the groundwater section of UNESCO and then whenever we had an opportunity for youth engagement, especially during the forum because during the forum where Mahmood, we are losing you. If you can hear this we had three specialized like hydrogeologists well connected, I would say. Yeah, can you hear me now? Yes, is it better now or can you hear me? No, we'll just tell you. Is it better now or is it still? Now is better. It's better now, yes. Yeah, sorry for that. My internet connection is really not good now. But I was saying that we faced during the car that we were having what are organizing three main side events and we were having a challenge to get some youth to join our sessions as part of the youth like engagement somehow. And then we called for some participation and we only received like general water specialists like young experts, but we never found any hydrogeologists and that was a really challenge. So that's basically due to our lack of corrections I would say like we didn't manage to reach people enough and this is where we decided like, okay, we need to have a specialized network on ground water as a pilot. We wanted to pilot whether this network would work or not in the upcoming year. And then I proposed the idea to my senior management and then they approved it immediately. They launched the network itself. And I think since March until now they have been really, really doing a great job. We managed to secure some funding for them because they are really active so that they can participate as much as possible and they are reporting on their activities. They managed to just launch this youth forum during the summit itself. They were there in COP, they were there in World Water Week. So it's actually, I think it's the drive where we can see some engagement like we're trying to pull the first string and then we found them, they are self-driving themselves. Like I won't say that when it's just doing anything then just offering the opportunity. And I think they are really getting it and they are really engaging enough. They are very active. They are everywhere as possible. And I believe whenever I'm reporting back to my senior management on their progress they give me more opportunity. They give me more funding to allow them for more better and better participation. So I think it's only that we need this door. So UNESCO started with this small pilot example. I think my annual review or evaluation for the network will be March. So I'm having pretty good report for the first year. I think that is giving a lot bigger chance for more youth participation within the water field in the next year. So I believe by the forum, I think we are also, we invited the director of the 10th World Water Forum in Bali was there in the summit. We had a very nice interesting talks with them. They were on the panel because we did this intergenerational panel. They promised that the youth will be having pretty large role during the next forum. So I think it's going there is just, we need to keep pushing, keep asking for opportunities and keep pushing. Yeah, keep pushing our people because it's all those seniors. There is an opportunity, but we need to ask them. We need to know when and how to ask. And we need to propose the ideas because whenever we're having a finalized proposal, whenever the proposal to initiate a network for youth was ready, it just got an immediate response. So I think it's always like, we need to be prepared to intervene immediately. And I invite you all also to please, like if you're having time, try to join the network because the network of groundwater of UNESCO is not actually an organization in itself. It's a network of networks. We're having this steering committee, like Isabella knows pretty much about how it works. We are nominating one from each youth organization working on water in the steering committee. We're having this monthly meeting where everybody from each organization are meeting and they are deciding on their next programs, like the annual programs. Then they are seeing opportunities. We're having a lot of committees. We are more than 900 youth, a young expert now. I think it's going pretty well. And thank you. I think that's good. Thanks, Mahmood. You're absolutely correct in saying that sometimes the most that we can do is to offer these opportunities or knock on the doors of senior leaders to say, this is what we want to happen. That's exactly the work that you are doing, as well as with Isabella in the YWP community and for many of us here as well. I want to follow up that thought with a question, not to our speakers, but to our participants. Knowing these opportunities are present, how do you feel or what do you think you should be doing in the coming year to take advantage of these opportunities? Whose doors are you going to knock on? And if they open the door, what are you going to ask them? Yeah, that is a really, really good question to say. Like the responsibility to answer lies with all of us and how we can push this forward. The opportunities are there. Here you have examples of organizations and let's say adult organizations and youth led organizations that are trying to increase and enhance the participation of young water professionals. But at the same time, we need people that are interested and that are keen to take the responsibility and do the work. So yeah, I want to hear from the participants on this. I would just love to randomly take people off mute and hear from you, but please feel free to share your thoughts about... Let's call it our water resolution for 2023. What is that new year's resolution that we're going to do for the sector as young people? Well, young from my side and from the IWA side, I can definitely say that we'll be pushing forward this agenda. We have the fellowship, we have the activities that are planted during the UN Water Conference. We are already in discussion with key partners. Then we have the New York Water Week that we will be there. And then the groundwater summit, I think that next year it will be something else. But IWA is also organizing other events around the globe and we are pushing to include YWPs in the program committee. So definitely something that we are keen to continue working on this. So this is our vision for next year. I love it. And we all look forward to amazing things from the YWP community as we've led us, Isabella. Of course, with the help of the steering committee. Jacob, if I could ask you to put in your thoughts here as the chair of the steering committee, what exciting things can we expect in the coming year or perhaps in the coming years? What is the call to action from the steering committee? Thank you very much, Yung. I think I wasn't at Coke, but at an emboldened summit too. But at this stage, I feel like I knew everything that happened there. So I think moving forward into the next year, as Isabella mentioned, IWA has a lot of activities that they'll be looking at. And some of them will be in line with what have been discussed here today. So I believe as young professionals, we also have to contribute to our quota. And I also encourage everyone to take advantage of the toolbox that Mahmood talked about. And let's see how best we can collaborate and support each other in the various initiatives that we are engaging in the watch sector, especially with what was discussed at Coke and with the groundwater issues. Thank you Jacob, very well said. And that's really a good way to help each other out because we can offer these resources, tools and platforms, but we also need to support these platforms because they were created with the best of intentions. The only way to make use of them in impactful and meaningful ways is to really engage with these tools and resources. Jin, I see your hand is up. Yes, I raise my hand. Please say it. So yeah, hello, this is Jin from Japan at the UNESCO International House. And this year I also attend to the Coke 27s and answer nice, nice water summit in Senegal. And also attending to the meeting or the conference they did to the waters and yeah, includes the groundwater summit. And at that time, yeah, my government also need to change to their ideas for the water engagement, especially as a focus on the groundwater resources management, strongly connected to the international rivers. And for the next years as a youth members and youth groups, we're going to bring to some of the proposals and countermeasures based on some analysis from the scientific data to the UN water summit as a game changer members of the programs. And also after the sessions, we're also going to bring to some of the results from the Asia Pacific water forums in my country. And at that time, we had to discuss to some of the technological development and system development. And going to propose for some funding initiatives for the creations based on the results from the loss and damage funding capacity buildings into that decided into the COP 27s. So as a youth need to have got some more information to engage and still based on the information about some special accreditation selection is highly competitive compared to any other conferences. So I guess maybe we need to collaborate to some specific organizations who have some status to attend online or in persons as a UN headquarters. So that's my opinion, thanks so much. Yeah, may I come to this? Go ahead, Isabela. Thank you. So, Jen, I agree with you. I think that is going to be a huge competition to receive this special accreditation. And just to remind that this is up to the UN agencies, not that the partners organization they're responsible for, but what we are discussing with the organizations and also trying to create partnerships. And the UN will be in the hybrid. So if you're not able to be in New York, because we understand that some of people they are not received the visa, we know that the US has the situation with visa and it's also the costs are quite high to go to New York. So there's going to be some hybrid events. Then you can participate online. I think that this is really good that they are pushing this hybrid conference mode. And then in terms of receiving the badges, you cannot go as individuals, only organizations can attend, organizations and governments. So you can try to find organizations that already received the special accreditation, but also organization that has this consultative status with Ecosoc. There is a huge list online that you can check and you can reach out to them if you see one that is from your country. You can reach out to them saying that you're interested in attending and representing the country as part of the delegation. And if you have the connection with the government, I think that it's a good idea to say why not include a youth in their official delegation on this. Yeah. Back to you. Thanks so much. And yes, we had to go to some accreditation algorithms for the first round of special accreditation. So we had to go to some accreditation for some grant pass to the unit headquarters. Thanks so much. Thank you for your support. Thank you, Jin. If we could go back to Isabella and perhaps Jacob as well on Diana's question, what is on the IWA 2023 agenda and perhaps focused on YWPs and not just IWA as a whole, on these three themes, ecological biodiversity, indigenous communities and knowledge, empowering women in the water sector? I think that the IWA has activities related to all of this, not only because they are related with our strategic goals that I mentioned in the beginning of my presentation, but also because we have more than 50 strategies, specialist groups that deals with all this issue. And they're the ones producing scientific knowledge leading the change and being the leaders in this topic. So Diana, I do suggest that you check all the lists that we have for specialist groups. You can find this information on our website. I can add this here in the chat later. And feel free to reach out to their management committee and ask about what they are producing on this. For example, regarding women in water, how we empower women in water, besides the DAI strategy that IWA have, we have the SG specialist group on sustainability in the water sector. And they are responsible for organizing these activities that highlight women in the water sector. And one of the things that I like from them is that they really include youth in their management committee. Arlinda was one of the previous chairs of the YWP String Committee and she is in the management committee of this SG. And she is really keen to support youth engaging the discussions and the discussions about youth women in the water sector. But then it's just an example about how we are pushing this. And another one, we have the Senate Action Program that was recently launched in Copenhagen. And they also touched in all these topics that you put in your question. That's exciting Isabella. If I could for a moment just turn the question back to Diana, because I see in the chat box that you will be joining the IWA to learn more about the specialist groups. Diana, what are you looking for in terms of knowledge, training and professional development in these topics? So that perhaps if we couldn't find it in the IWA library and gold mine of resources, perhaps it's something really for IWA to start considering to develop. Thank you so much for your question. I am a chemical engineer. I work for the North Carolina government. I do work protecting water resources and biodiversity and indigenous communities. So that's why I asked that question. And right now one of my focus is to be able to learn on the flood management. That's one of the things that I'm more interested on, but the things that I mentioned on my questions, those are like my top priorities right now. So I just wanted to know from you guys what you had on the agenda. But yeah, I haven't really explored much the IWA website. I'm very focused on my work on these days right now, driving, moving to places. So but yeah, it was good to be able to join for a little bit and good to meet you all, okay? Hope to see you in IWA 2020 while in the UN 2023. That sounds great. Thank you, Diana. You will find tons of good stuff in IWA, both in the digital libraries and database, but also in-person meetups, conferences, and other places that IWA has partnerships with. I see an interesting comment here from Anik that I'd like him to explain a bit for us. This sounds like your three new year's water resolutions knocking on IGOs and NGOs, ministries, and YWPs in your circle. What do these concrete actions mean to you, Anik? Okay, so I wasn't expecting that follow up to explain it. Okay, I'll just explain it. Okay, so knocking IGOs and NGOs. So these form a big part when it comes to, you know, conserving water and getting information. So talk about the global water partnership or talking about the CCK, the Climate Change Knowledge Portal, the World Health Organization and all those bodies. So it's really important that we look and seek the supports that they have to offer us. And by searching for the support internationally, we should not really forget that there should be some kind of support nationally also, and there should be some NGOs who would be working in the water scenario. So we should also get to them and talk to them that, okay, we need these resources. Can you help us with these? Can you share it with us, for example? So the second one is knocking the ministry. It is just very rare that we find out someone from the government, someone from within the power who can actually focus on the youth. And luckily I found one person. So he is on my to-do list for the year 23 to pursue him and to get him include us on every policy that they are going to make. Probably so at least one or two recommendations should be reached out onto the fora from the youth. And then knocking the YWPs in my circle. So, okay, I did not take offense in this, but when you talk about water, we are usually referring to the people in hydrology, in civil engineering. I didn't know, did not talk about engineering at all. I mean, that's so old fashioned. Talk about mechanical engineers in water, talk about law and lawyers in water, talk about the climate financing and bankers in water. So yeah, I mean, you should get up out of the couch and really start to roll the boat to see how deep the water is. That's a great to-do list, Anik. And if there's anything that your YWP family can do to help you and support you in these very concrete actions, you know who to reach out to. That is perhaps a great way to end this open forum on such a high note and such an inspired note. Thank you all for your participation in this discussion. And I will turn you over to Isabella for final closing remarks. Yeah, I'm having issues with the connection here. We could hear feedback, Isabella, but I think the microphone is from Maria's side would do well if you could turn off your speaker from the other side. Yeah, now we're back. Okay. There you go. Yeah, I think that is working now. Awesome. Yes, it is. Like in the final minutes, I have problems with sharing the screen. So I'm not able to share the final slides on this, but I want to thank you everyone for coming today. It was a pleasure meeting some of you, seeing some familiar faces, but also new faces. And I do invite all of you to join NWA to follow our activities. I've been, people know me as standing all the males, sharing all the opportunities, but also helping young water professionals to create new chapters and to engage with the other programs and that IWA is offering. So feel free to reach out to me in case you need it. And you have here members from the YWP steering committee, but also members from counter chapters. And if you don't know if your vision or our country have a chapter, I can try to put you in contact with the chair or the engagement officer that they have, but also helping you to create a chapter in your region, for example. And yeah, I think that's it. And thank you once again for coming and young. Thank you for being this amazing moderator in this session today. And for the speakers, thank you for presenting and contributing to this event and to share your knowledge in your experiencing these two events that you had in the water sector. Thank you very much, Isabella. And it's been a pleasure being your host and moderator for this final get-together. Hope to see you in the new year. Take care, everyone. Merry Christmas and happy new year. See you all. Bye, take care. Bye. Bye-bye.