August 29, 2012, Stockholm: The UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate initiative today announced the launch of a global Water Action Hub – the world’s first on-line platform to unite companies, governments, NGOs, and other stakeholders on a range of critical water projects in specific river basins around the planet. The launch of the Water Action Hub was accompanied by the release of a beta version of the CEO Water Mandate’s Guide to Water-Related Collective Action, which provides a step-by-step approach to water-resource-related collective action.
The launch of the Water Action Hub and the Guide took place at the CEO Water Mandate’s ninth working conference during World Water Week in Stockholm.
The core of the Water Action Hub online tool is a map-based data management system that facilitates match-making by allowing users to identify potential collective action opportunities via river basins, organizations, projects, and collaboration action areas.
“With the Water Action Hub to help companies identify potential collaborators to improve water management in regions of critical strategic interest, and the Guide to Water-Related Collective Action to help them effectively develop a collective action engagement, the CEO Water Mandate is helping companies move into strategic partnerships that safeguard water resources, while delivering value to economies, business, and the community,” said Jason Morrison, Program Director of the Pacific Institute, which serves as part of the Secretariat of the CEO Water Mandate.
The Water Action Hub was developed by the CEO Water Mandate in partnership with the International Business Leaders Forum; Deloitte; GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development; and the Pacific Institute.
While the Water Action Hub provides a platform for local project implementation, the companion beta version of the Guide to Water-Related Collective Action lays out how effective collective action in sustainable water management is both the key to approaching shared risk successfully and addressing a substantial point of vulnerability for many companies.
The Guide to Water-Related Collective Action was developed by the CEO Water Mandate in partnership with Ross Strategic; Pegasys Strategy and Development; the Pacific Institute; and the Water Futures Partnership.
The CEO Water Mandate Guide to Water Resource Collective Action can be downloaded free of charge from the Pacific Institute website at www.pacinst.org/reports/water_related_collective_action and on the CEO Water Mandate website at www.ceowatermandate.org. The Water Action Hub is live at www.wateractionhub.org.