1 October 2008

 

Madam/Sir,

 

On behalf of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the World Water Council, it is our great pleasure to invite you or your representative to participate in the Preparatory Conference of the Parliamentary Process of the 5^th World Water Forum, “Parliaments for Water”, which will be held in the Council of Europe (Room 5), Strasbourg, France, on 6 November 2008.

 

The World Water Forum is one of the largest multi-stakeholder water-related events; it aims to raise awareness on the criticality of water issues and to propose concrete solutions to address global challenges. It is organized every three years jointly by the Government of a host country and the World Water Council. More than a conference, it is an interactive process, with preparatory and follow-up phases that includes Thematic, Regional and Political Processes.

 

The Political Process of the 5th World Water Forum, which will be held in Istanbul on 16-22 March 2009, has three parallel components involving, respectively, National Governments, Parliamentarians and Local Authorities. These three components are rather independent but all revolve around one single theme “Water Management Adaptation Strategies for Global Changes, including Climate Variability/Change”. Each political group is developing its own set of activities as explained in the attached leaflet and a general dialogue among the three political groups will be organized during the Forum event.

 

The Parliamentary Process of the World Water Fora is new, although a first meeting was organized in Mexico City during the 4^th World Water Forum. It intends to give a greater voice to Parliamentarians in the global debate on water. Parliamentarians are expected to prepare contributions on a series of critical issues such as transboundary waters, adaptation to global changes, the human right to water and decentralization policies.  The creation of a “Water Legislation Helpdesk” for the development of legal frameworks on water will also be discussed (see attached concept note). The main objective of the meeting in Strasbourg is to discuss these proposals as well as the general framework of the process and to initiate the preparation of the parliamentary contribution to the 5^th World Water Forum Political Process.

 

                                                                       Yours faithfully,

 

 

              Mustafa Öztürk                                                                       Loïc Fauchon

                    Member of Turkish Grand National Assembly                                                       President

Chairman – 5^th World Water Forum Parliamentarian Process Committee                       World Water Council

 

 

 

 

Alain Meale

Chairman

Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs

Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe

 

 

 

Enclosed:

Strasbourg Preparatory Conference draft programme

Parliamentarian Process Concept Note

Strasbourg Preparatory Meeting Registration Form