In March 2022, Senegal hosted the ninth World Water Forum in Dakar, the first held in sub-Saharan Africa, under the presidency of Macky Sall. Its watchword tied together two stakes that the candidate for UN Secretary-General holds as one: water security in the service of peace and development.
Where water runs short. Agriculture retreats, herds compete for water points and tensions rise. Access to water decides part of the peace of whole regions, and President Macky Sall's candidacy counts water among the questions of security.
Water and conflict prevention. Sharing a river, an aquifer or a lake can bring states together or set them against one another. Cooperation built around water prevents conflicts later ascribed to other causes. Investing in access to water, and in its sharing, is a matter of preventive diplomacy as much as of development.
Basins shared among several countries. None of the states along a shared basin settles the question alone. Senegal argued in international forums for concerted management and for financing scaled to the needs, because a decision about water binds every neighbour that depends on it.
Basin agreements and the UN. The Secretary-General can place water on the agenda of peace. The office can also document the link between water and conflict and support the basin agreements that stabilise the regions they cover.
The 2022 Forum and the vision for the UN. The Dakar Forum took place during President Macky Sall's twelve years as head of state, in the very year of his chairmanship of the African Union. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames its proposals as obligations: peace and security conceived with development; a renewed multilateralism; stronger governance of the Organization.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
The ninth World Water Forum was held in Dakar in March 2022. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net