AWS 2016-17: Review of Progress and Learning
2016’s inaugural Global Water Stewardship Forum was a milestone event. Over 100 participants from 20 countries engaged in sessions that reflected on our progress, articulated the roles of different players and explored how we can collectively advance water stewardship to better deliver on its potential.
The event recognized the progress made in ten years of water stewardship’s evolution, the centrality of the AWS Standard in driving credible water stewardship, whilst also reflecting on the significant challenges we still need to resolve. Collectively, at last year’s Forum we concluded that:
- The AWS Standard is now widely recognised as the credible framework for implementing water stewardship
- We need to continue to develop local networks that connect to a vibrant international community of AWS members, sharing knowledge and best practice
- We should seek to deepen engagement with the public sector at different levels, especially local government
- The AWS Standard review process should seek to make the AWS system more accessible to smallholder farmers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
- We need to invest in knowledge sharing platform to support uptake and impact
- Investment in communications and the AWS brand is needed to better explain how AWS water stewardship supports corporate goals, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other sustainability objectives.
We have been able to make significant progress in many of these areas during 2017. The Review of Progress and Learnings 2016-2017, distributed to delegates at the 2017 AWS Forum, outlines the progress made, key lessons learned and major issues we are seeking to address as a global network of water stewardship practice and expertise.
