You are invited to a webinar hosted by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) that will explore the implications of COVID-19 on global water and food security, and how water planning can best incorporate the critical uncertainties that pandemics bring.

Date and Time: Wednesday, June 3, 9:00 - 10:30 am PDT.

The webinar will be hosted on Zoom and is open to all. Registration is required using Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/water-and-food-security-in-the-face-of-covid-19-finding-robust-solutions-tickets-106733944100

For over a decade, SEI has helped government and non-government organizations plan and manage water in a way that increases resilience and reduces vulnerabilities for both humans and ecosystems. We use a participatory, stakeholder-driven process -- called Robust Decision Support (RDS) -- to identify critical uncertainties and find robust solutions to water scarcity.

The COVID-19 pandemic brings new challenges and circumstances to water and agricultural planning, which must be incorporated into the RDS process and water models. This webinar will focus on three on-going projects in the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America, where we have begun discussions with stakeholders on how to add COVID scenarios into their water planning to ensure resilience.

Participants will discuss how best to incorporate pandemics into water modelling and planning and will address key questions for water and agricultural stakeholders, such as:

- Given the disruption in food imports and exports, how might water allocations shift towards more focus on national and/or local food self-sufficiency?

- If emphasis is given to food self-sufficiency with increased allocations for agriculture, what will be the impacts on other sectors? Who potentially wins and loses?

- Can water for sanitation and hygiene (WASH) get renewed investment in order to provide all people with access to clean water for hand washing, to reduce the spread of COVID 19 and other waterborne diseases?

- What is the role and/or potential of more inclusive water interventions to allow the most vulnerable to gain more water-related income potential though local markets?

Agenda

Introduction - Marisa Escobar, Water Program Director, SEI

Panel Discussion - moderated by Annette Huber-Lee, Senior Scientist, SEI

Panelists:

  - Lahcen Kenny, PhD, Professor, Departement d'Horticulture, Institut Agronomique et Veterinaire Hassan II, Agadir, Morocc

  - Laura Forni, Senior Scientist, Equality in Water Management in Bolivia, SEI

  - Kim Andersson, Senior Expert, Sanitation Global Perspective, SEI

  - Newsha Ajami, Director of Urban Water Policy, Water in the West

  - Marta Echavarria, Director of Ecodecision

Q and A - moderated by Brian Joyce, Senior Scientist, SEI

Hundreds of people attended our webinar last week, in which experts weighed in on the implications of COVID-19 on global water and food security, and how water planning can best incorporate the critical uncertainties that pandemics bring.

Read our experts' conclusions and watch the webinar recording:

https://www.sei.org/featured/five-key-actions-to-ensure-water-and-food-security-in-the-face-of-covid-19/