Adaptation Futures Conference in Montreal

Transforming the lives of the poorest and most marginalized people by improving access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene is WaterAid’s mission. Ensuring health of people and planet for future generations compels us to champion SDG 6 “water and sanitation for all” as an essential element for building resilience of people to climate change. We simply cannot tackle the climate crisis without providing water and sanitation for people living in poverty.

In October 2023, Ouranos, the Government of Canada and the WASP will hosted the 7th edition of The Adaptation Futures Conference (AF2023). The Adaptation Futures series is the premier international conference devoted entirely to climate change adaptation, bringing together researchers, policymakers, practitioners, industry representatives and communicators to present their work on adaptation, discuss emerging and cutting-edge issues, learn what others are doing, and build networks.

AF2023 was a critical meeting point to advance discussion about climate change adaptation in an increasingly complex world.

WaterAid was there bringing its voice and experience for WASH and water security to urge climate action for water across local, national, and global spaces. Water is a keystone of adaptation, health equity, climate justice and an essential pathway for gender equality for women on the frontlines of climate change. Through strong political leadership and innovative financial investment in water, governments can reduce the heavy costs of response to climate disaster and ensure billions of people have a more secure future.

What were our priorities at Adaptation Futures?

Making universal access to WASH a critical adaptation strategy: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) supports ‘making universal access to WASH a critical adaptation strategy’ and increasing climate finance to WASH as a low-regrets investment for adaptation. Equity in water and sanitation is also recognized as a means of ensuring climate adaptation reaches those who are most vulnerable and those with the least resources to adapt.
Championing WASH and water security in adaptation priorities and climate finance: A number of vital climate conferences and dialogues are taking place around the world. With COP28 in the distance, WaterAid is participating in key climate events to continue to bang the drum for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) as essential solutions for climate adaptation and building climate resilience. From Africa Climate Week and the Africa Climate Summit, the UNGA and the Climate Ambition Summit, to Adaptation Future – WaterAid will continue to amplify the voices of people not in these spaces who face the impacts of climate change while living with WASH inequalities.
Knowledge exchange and adaptation research: Adaptation is fundamentally about behavior change. As such, WaterAid is pleased to be part of the behavioural adaptation for water security and inclusion (BASIN) consortium. BASIN is funded by UK aid from the UK government and by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada as part of the Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) research program. This brought us to Adaptation Futures to meet, for the first time in-person, with the CLARE network and to join together as partners in the BASIN consortium from Burkina Faso, Tanzania and Malawi, for discussions and knowledge exchange.

We also exhibited images from world-renowned photographer Aida Muleneh's Water Life project, whose work is also currently on display at the Tate Modern in London.

This Conference provided a unique chance to share expertise, skills and backgrounds and exchange experiences with an active adaptation network. Some reflections from our delegation:

"We are here to contribute, to learn, to hear from others who have done incredible work on adaptation, and we are here to share how adaptation is done in our local context."

Gloroi Kafuria, Director Technical Services, WaterAid Tanzania

"We are taking about adaptation, our capacity to water and climate change and ways to adapt. There is a lot of learning and sharing that will help us to deliver strong programs for the communities we work with."

Eric Mamboue, Country Director, Burkina Faso