ABOUT WORLD WATER WEEK

NOW Partners is a co-convenor of the Focus on the Americas at World Water Week 2022, in Stockholm & streamed virtually August 23 – September 1, 2022.  The hybrid online/in-person program will include 13 sessions and seminars, among other activities, on topics such as maximizing the development value of water, investing in the future of water, better decision-making for water security, valuing nature, and nature-based solutions.

Latin America and the Caribbean, like the rest of the world, needs to bring to light water’s full value for society. This is the main message of the Focus on the Americas sessions at the Stockholm International Water Institute’s World Water Week. This year’s conference theme is ‘Seeing the Unseen: The Value of Water.’

World Water Week, hosted annually by the Stockholm International Water Institute, is the leading global event for the water and sanitation sector.

FOCUS ON THE AMERICAS KICKOFF

Our partner Monica A. Altamirano will moderate this first  session (in-person & virtual):

“Investing in the future: A paradigm shift in LAC”
August 29, 2022 at 16:00-17:30 (Amsterdam) / 10:00 – 11:30 (New York).  

It will be a very exciting session! Please find the program here.

Focus on the Americas is co-convened by: IDB, CAF Development Bank, NOW Partners, AySA, United Nations, ECLAC, IRC, European Union, German Cooperation, GIZ, Nexus, World Bank Group, amongst others.

WHY WORLD WATER WEEK?

The region-specific sessions will feature high-profile experts with extensive experience in water and sanitation, with the goal of fostering dialogue among stakeholders from different sub regions and sectors. There will be panelists from government agencies, utilities, international organizations, universities, the private sector, and donor agencies, among other entities.

This year’s discussions will explore tools and ways to maximize the impact and sustainability of water, sanitation and hygiene investments. They will also share innovative financing mechanisms, novel water security experiences, nature-based solutions and other relevant information to ensure protection for vulnerable groups and overcome water and sanitation challenges across the region.

It is important to shift paradigms and make society aware of the importance of maintaining water quality, effective sanitation and solid waste services to improve the quality of life of current and future generations.

Sharing innovative experiences regarding water security, nature-based solutions and the implementation of effective public policies will help overcome the challenges we face in terms of water and sanitation in the region, while mitigating climate risk.

Under these premises, the Focus on the Americas will have four thematic sessions:

* Invest in the future: A paradigm shift in LAC.
* Improve decision making for water security.
* Maximize the development value of water.
* Appreciation of nature in LAC: challenges and opportunities.

NOW PARTNERS & WORLD WATER WEEK

NOW is a global partnership of 100+ senior business leaders, change experts and their teams united to accelerate the economic evolution of multinationals, large family companies and systems institutions.

We empower our client-partners in their transitions towards fully integrating economic success with equitable benefit for all stakeholders, including shareholders and Nature. We call this Regenerative Value Creation, which must become the DNA of a healthy and truly sustainable economy.

Together, NOW’s partners co-create concrete corporate models and a new logic for a future economy that respects our unavoidable planetary boundaries and catalyzes our full human potential. Please find below a brief selection of the projects and initiatives our partners around the world have set in motion.

AMAZON INVESTOR COALITION

The Amazon Investor Coalition is a global learning and investment platform that unites philanthropies and private investors with governments, non-profits and allies to increase forest-friendly economic development and the rule of law across the Amazon region. As a central resource for climate change mitigation and the global water cycle, the Amazon rainforest is vital for planetary sustainability. Investing in a regenerative Amazon bioeconomy is the highest-leverage climate mitigation opportunity of our time. We aim to ensure that the forest is worth more alive and standing than cut and burned. Learn more here. NOW Contact: Jonah Wittkamper.

CO_CAPITAL: INVESTING FOR IMPACT

CO_ is a group of organizations that work alongside each other with the purpose of investing for impact: scaling social enterprises that are pursuing social transformation, gender equality and climate change mitigation. Via CO_Plataforma, we have incubated 14 organizations that drive and catalyze social entrepreneurs; accelerated more than 1,000 social enterprises; certified 80+ B Corps (businesses prioritizing people & planet); raised more than USD 15m in funding for social enterprises. Learn more here. NOW Contacts: Tania Rodriguez & Manolo Vega

OBSERVING THE RIVERS: SOS MATA ATLANTICA

The Observing the Rivers project brings together different communities to perform monthly monitoring activities with the goal of assessing the water quality of local rivers, streams, and other water bodies. It is a citizenship science initiative lead by groups of local volunteers who monitor the quality of rivers of the Atlantic Forest. During more than 20 years it has summed 3,000 volunteers monitoring more then 300 points of more than 200 river of the 17 Brazilian states where the Atlantic Forest occurs in Brasil. Learn more at SOS Mata Atlantica. NOW Contact: Luis Fernando.

DANONE: BANKABLE NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS

Danone and NOW Partners are working together on building a common language between Nature-based Solutions project developers and financiers. Much has been tried and discussed to significantly increase capital flows towards NbS, yet both public and private actors alike are confronted time and time again with prohibitive transaction costs to assess these projects and their investability, AKA bankability. To deal with this important roadblock, we are partnering and starting to develop a community of practice where public and private sectors, industry, and academics work closely and timely together to unlock private sector investments and climate finance for the implementation of NbS at watershed and/or landscape scale. NOW contacts: Monica A. Altamirano & Tom Cummings. Danone contact: Jehanne Fabre

HASTEN VENTURES: REGENERATING HIMALAYAS

Hasten Ventures’ Regenerating Himalayas: Rapid Climate Restoration and Economic Development Opportunities creates jobs for Indian farmers through restoration of native tree species in community forests. The pine needles (from Colonial-era plantations) create fire risk, and are being collected and converted into biochar and fuel for cookstoves. 10,000 hectares of community forests will be restored; thousands of jobs created; tree nurseries, pine-needle processing, and other forest creation infrastructure needed to create a profitable, replicable, scalable, model for ecosystem restoration across this bio-region. Network partners include: Hasten Ventures, Afforest, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology & the Environment, World Resources Institute, American India Foundation, Terra.do. Learn more here. NOW Contact: Peter Coughlan

NOW INSTITUTE ON REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

How can we successfully address the interrelated global crises of hunger, climate, nutrition, pandemics & biodiversity and soil loss, water and air pollution? NOW gathers experts from the Americas & globally, who are successfully implementing regenerative solutions that regenerate land and communities while improving profitability for farmers and resilience to climate stresses. NOW Contacts: Hunter Lovins & Walter Link

NOW INNOVATION LABS

NOW Partners is convening Innovation Labs on key global topics, bringing together the world’s leading and most disruptive companies across industriesto develop innovative solutions to global challenges being faced across all functions in business. In partnership with Messe Munich, the largest exhibition convenor in Germany, hosting for example Outdoor by ISPO, a leading convention of the Outdoor Industry, and companies such as Philips and others. NOW Contacts: Walter Link & Renske van Grinsven

SAVE THE DATE: FUTURE ECONOMY FORUM, CAIRO

NOV 2-18, 2022, BEFORE & DURING COP27
Join us before & during COP27 in Egypt for the Future Economy Forum – a working summit between leaders from the regenerative economy, policy and other stakeholder groups.

The Future Economy Forum will highlight the work of the most interesting regeneration-oriented companies, investors, policymakers, NGOs and other experts, presenting a mosaic of visions, action initiatives, media and education offerings to help co-create critical mass towards mainstreaming regenerative economies and societies. Learn more about the Future Economy Forum.