Mobilizing Bold Climate-Resilient Water Investments for a Water-Secure Global Future
With fewer than five years remaining to deliver on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world remains significantly off track to achieve the water-secure future enshrined in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6. Addressing this gap demands urgent, decisive action: closing an annual global financing shortfall of over USD 140 billion for climate-resilient water systems. As an indispensable enabler of economic development, public health, food security, energy sustainability, and climate resilience, water represents a critical catalyst for accelerated progress—one that requires scaled investments and innovative solutions to safeguard sustainable water resources for present and future generations.
Vision, Mission, and Strategic Pillars
GWP’s overarching vision is a water-secure world, underpinned by a mission to support nations in strengthening the financing, governance, and management of water resources to enable sustainable, climate-resilient, and equitable development. The 2026–2030 strategy is anchored in three mutually reinforcing Strategic Goals—each critical to addressing interconnected global water challenges, and aligned with the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda:
– Finance and Investments: Enhance the volume, quality, and efficiency of financing to achieve climate-resilient water security.
– Governance: Strengthen national water governance architectures and transboundary cooperation mechanisms in water and water-dependent sectors.
– Knowledge, Capacity, Data, and Digital Transformation: Fortify institutional systems, build professional capacity, and scale data-driven innovation and knowledge sharing.
The strategy builds on the demonstrated success of the Continental Africa Water Investment Programme and the African Union’s Pyramid of Water Investment Transformation—unveiled at the 2023 UN Water Conference—which outlines a roadmap to mobilize at least USD 30 billion annually for water investments in Africa by 2030. This framework will be replicated to address regional financing gaps in Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe, with diversified funding sources including bilateral ODA, multilateral development finance, national budgets, mineral resource taxes, and institutional investors.
A Call to Collective Action
As GWP scales its global engagement, it aims to solidify its role as a leading mobilizer of the water sector and contribute to shaping the post-2030 sustainable development agenda. Stakeholders—including governments, multilateral development banks, private sector entities, and civil society organizations—interested in joining the Global Transformation Agenda on Water Investments are invited to connect with GWP via email at gwp@gwp.org, visit its official website at www.gwp.org, or follow the organization on LinkedIn.
Against the backdrop of the narrowing 2030 SDG timeline, GWP’s Strategy 2026–2030 offers a timely, evidence-based roadmap to address one of the most pressing global challenges of our time—demonstrating that with collective leadership, innovative financing, and inclusive governance, a water-secure world is achievable.