The 7th meeting of the Roundtable on Financing Water is a thematic meeting focused on financing agricultural water organised in partnership with the OECD and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This meeting will support the OECD’s broader work on financing water as well as FAO's strategic priorities on promoting investments in agricultural water (and update on the development of the new Strategic Framework) that contribute to sustainable water management, food security, and sustainable development more broadly. FAO, as a founding member of UN-Water, is moving forward on the action pillars of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 Global Acceleration Framework in catalysing water investments, data and information, capacity development, innovation and governance.

Aim of ‌the Roundtable on Financing Water 

The Roundtable on Financing Water is a joint initiative of the OECD, the Netherlands, the World Water Council and the World Bank. The Roundtable provides a global public - private platform drawing upon political leadership and technical expertise, with the ambition of facilitating increased financing of investments that contribute to water security and sustainable growth. 

The Roundtable engages a diversity of actors – governments and regulators in developed, emerging and developing economies, private financiers (e.g. institutional investors, commercial banks, asset managers, impact investors), development financing institutions, bi-lateral donors, international organisations, academia and civil society organisations – focused on finding novel ideas and solutions.

Background Papers  

• OECD (2021) Day 1, Roundtable on Financing Agricultural Water: The case for action on financing agricultural water
  
  
• OECD (2021) Day 2, Roundtable on Financing Agricultural Water: Opportunities for investments in agricultural water to contribute to a green and resilient recovery and mobilise commercial finance
  
  
• FAO (2020) Smart Irrigation - Smart wash: Solutions in response to the pandemic crisis in Africa
  
  
• FAO (2020) State of Food and Agriculture: Overcoming water challenges in agriculture
  
  
• Gruère, G., M. Shigemitsu and S. Crawford (2020), "Agriculture and water policy changes: Stocktaking and alignment with OECD and G20 recommendations", OECD Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Papers, No. 144, OECD Publishing, Paris.
  
  
• FAO - IWMI (2019) Towards a new generation of policies and investments in agricultural water in the Arab region - Fertile Ground for Innovation
  
  
• FAO- IWMI (2019) Why invest in agricultural water? Case for action and investment
  
  
• Gruère, G. and H. Le Boëdec (2019), "Navigating pathways to reform water policies in agriculture", OECD Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Papers, No. 128, OECD Publishing, Paris.
  
  
• FAO (2018) Guidelines on irrigation investment projects