FWP messages on global water governance presented at OECD
Update 2025-01-30
Gérard Payen, FWP’s deputy chairman, delivering his speech during the meeting.
Members of the OECD Water Governance Initiative held an international meeting in Paris on January 28, 2025. Many FWP members were present.
On this occasion, the OECD asked Gérard Payen, former advisor to the UN Secretary-General and a contributor to global water governance for over 20 years, to give his views on the progress and shortcomings of the international community in this area.
Gérard Payen, who is Vice-Chairman of the FWP, deplored the wide gap between the 20 water-related SDG targets, i.e. the global goals for water, and the very little progress resulting from the actions of individual countries.
He emphasized 3 global needs, which are the 3 main messages of the FWP concerning global governance:
- finally move from global goals to action towards these goals,
- mobilize all sectoral silos for each goal,
- extend global targets beyond 2030 without lowering their ambitions.
He warned us against those who would denigrate the SDGs:
“Resist those who talk about the failure of the SDGs; it’s the public policies that are failing, not the goals.”
Text of Gérard Payen’s speech to the OECD
FWP synthesis of current statistical knowledge on global progress towards the SDG targets presented by Gérard Payen at the WGI:
