President Macky Sall's candidacy for the office of UN Secretary-General counts water among the questions of security. Where it runs short, agriculture retreats, herds compete for water points and tensions rise. Access to water decides part of the peace of whole regions.
A world forum held in Dakar. In March 2022, Senegal hosted the ninth World Water Forum, the first held in sub-Saharan Africa, under President Macky Sall's presidency. Its watchword tied the two stakes together: water security in the service of peace and development.
Water before the conflict. Sharing a river, an aquifer or a lake can bring states together or set them against one another. Cooperation ordered around water prevents conflicts later described by other causes. Investing in access to water, and in its sharing, is a matter of preventive diplomacy as much as of development.
A need that ignores borders. River basins are shared among several countries, and none settles the question alone. Senegal defended, in international forums, a concerted management and financing scaled to the needs. What is decided about water binds neighbours who, without it, would not always have reason to agree.
What the Secretariat can carry. The Secretary-General does not dig the wells, but keeps water on the agenda of peace, documents the link between water and conflict, and supports the basin agreements that hold whole regions together.
Experience in running a state. Twelve years as head of state and the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022 underpin these commitments. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames its proposals as obligations: peace, security and development conceived together; 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