Water for Health and Cooperation: Youth Priorities, Challenges, and Success Stories

17 April 2023

The United Nations (UN)  Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum will take place from 25 to 27 April 2023 in a hybrid format. The Forum provides a platform for young people to engage in a dialogue with UN Member States and other actors to voice their views and, concerns and galvanize actions on how to transform the world into a fairer, greener and more sustainable place guided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

SDG6 breakout session ECOSOC Youth Forum

The Youth Forum will address the theme of ECOSOC and the 2023 UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) on “Accelerating the recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at all levels”.

It will also review progress in the areas of clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), and partnerships for the goals (SDG17). 

During the three-day event a session on SDG 6 will be hosted on 25 April. The session 'Water for Health and Cooperation: Youth Priorities, Challenges, and Success Stories' will be a hybrid interactive discussion. Building on two of the themes of the UN 2023 Water Conference,  the objectives of the breakout session are to:

  • Discuss youth and children's challenges and perspectives on the right to water and sanitation, especially in humanitarian, climate and migration contexts, and on international and intergenerational cooperation for water,
  • Identify priority policies and actions for girls and young women to access safe drinking water, basic sanitation and menstrual health and hygiene in line with the SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework, 
  • Showcase youth solutions, best practices, success stories and peer to peer exchanges regarding water cooperation, water, sanitation and hygiene in humanitarian, climate and migration contexts, while promoting institutions and development partners’ role. 

The expected outcomes include youth recommendations to ensure WASH access for all and particularly for young women and young migrants and refugees, solutions by and for youth aligning with the SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework, and concrete next steps to support and implement the youth demands and solutions to meaningfully engage them in water diplomacy processes and cooperation mechanisms, the nearest milestone being the SDG 6 Special Event at HLPF, but also looking towards the SDG Summit (September 2023) and the Summit of the Future (September 2024).

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