If you care for the future of water, the future of SIWI, and the enabling environment it can empower, please sign this call to action:

“I, _______________ SUPPORT A STRONG CONVENING CAPACITY IN STOCKHOLM WITH THE TRIPARTITE CAPACITY OF THE STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL WATER INSTITUTE (SIWI), THE WORLD WATER WEEK, AND THE STOCKHOLM WATER PRIZES, AND I CALL UPON THE BOARD, THE PARTNERS, THE CITY OF STOCKHOLM, THE GOVERNMENT OF SWEDEN AND OTHER INVOLVED PARTNERS TO TAKE FIRM AND BOLD STEPS TO HELP REINVENT AND SECURE ITS FUTURE.”

To whom it may concern,

What started as a public water festival in Stockholm has developed into what we today know as World Water Week. A week that, through the careful and passionate convening by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), has grown into one of the most important global meeting places for water. We have come to know the Stockholm Water Prize and the Stockholm Junior Water Prize as integrated parts of this celebration of water.

Firmly anchored in the global water, environmental, and climate space, SIWI has, through its water expertise, global water projects, and the organizing of World Water Week, become a beacon for the water community. And World Water Week has grown into a safe space for candid conversations, provoking the existing practices, developing and presenting alternative approaches, promoting a global dialogue, and in-depth research for better understanding and supporting partnerships for action.

Water is special. It is literally connected to everything and everyone. Without water security we die. Our economies cripple. Conflicts worsen. And there is no way we can reach our ambitions without water: no Paris Agreement, no Kunming-Montreal Agenda, no financing scheme or economic model will survive. Capturing these opportunities and putting water at the top of all these agendas, for all these players, is not easy. Water is taken for granted, mis-managed, abused, and undervalued. And with that we put our lives and futures at risk.

The work of SIWI, its convening of World Water Week and participation on the global water scene is crucial. SIWI is a global convener helping to ensure that the world comes together for water, putting water on the agenda, providing inspiration and the necessary provocation. The Stockholm Water Prizes can be seen as part of this.

SIWI, the World Water Week, and the Stockholm Water Prizes, help putting Stockholm at the center of the water world, bringing the world to Stockholm, and bringing Stockholm to the world. The interdependencies between the three are their strength. One without the others is unthinkable and unrealistic. Still, they are now jeopardized.

As you might have heard, the Stockholm International Water Institute is facing an extensive process of change in which departments will close or be split up, with only the World Water Week department and a few more staff members remaining. 

The long-term intentions are not yet clear, although several current Board members, representing The City of Stockholm, intend to leave SIWI’s board to focus on Stockholm Water Foundation (SWF) and the Stockholm Water Prizes. The Chairman has, together with the outgoing Acting Executive Director issued a request on SIWI’s website for people to join the SIWI Board, which will be independent from SWF: https://siwi.org/latest/information-from-the-siwis-board/

The ongoing changes involve:

• The prizes will be guarded from changes thanks to the partnership with the Royal Swedish Academy of Science and separate funding.
• Several departments at SIWI, including the WASH group, may be transferred to a yet to be announced organization.
• The global outreach, advocacy and convening role will be severely scaled down, with far-reaching impacts on SIWI’s organizing and convening capacity, unless there is new organizational and donor support.
• The World Water Week is supposed to stand on its own legs, either within SIWI’s new organization or transferred / taken over by a separate entity / an existing organization.

 
A lot is still unclear, but the extent of the changes seems to go far beyond what existing funding for the immediate future requires. The costs of the planned re-organization will however influence existing funding. The talks between Union and Employer are to be finalized by the end of August, so more clarity will follow then but it is clear that both the World Water Week and SIWI are up for massive changes.
 
While acknowledging the hardships that these changes will be for the staff of SIWI, change can also present opportunities. The world and the global water dynamics have changed since SIWI was founded: halfway through the Water Action Decade, with the past UN 2023 Water Conference, and the upcoming 2026 and 2028 UN conferences, the WWF in Senegal, Indonesia and upcoming in Riyad, the One Water Summit, the Global Commission on the Economics of Water and its report, and water more prominent on global and local agendas at COP’s with a Water for Climate Pavilion which SIWI plays a central role in organizing, and in the trilogy of conventions for Biodiversity, Climate and Desertification.
 
This is therefore a good time to reset the focus, the ambition, and with that the capacity – institutionally, individually, and informally. There must also be a strong effort to take good care of the amazing staff of SIWI; their dedication, passion and expertise, which is the foundation that this network organization is built on.

Stockholm and Sweden have a choice to make: to stay center-staged in the water world, with a strong legacy and a future for water action, inspiration, and convening. Or not. 

If you care for the future of water, the future of SIWI, and the enabling environment it can empower, please sign this call to action:

“I, _______________ SUPPORT A STRONG CONVENING CAPACITY IN STOCKHOLM WITH THE TRIPARTITE CAPACITY OF THE STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL WATER INSTITUTE (SIWI), THE WORLD WATER WEEK, AND THE STOCKHOLM WATER PRIZES, AND I CALL UPON THE BOARD, THE PARTNERS, THE CITY OF STOCKHOLM, THE GOVERNMENT OF SWEDEN AND OTHER INVOLVED PARTNERS TO TAKE FIRM AND BOLD STEPS TO HELP REINVENT AND SECURE ITS FUTURE.”

If you wish to be engaged beyond that, there are several opportunities for you to do so. I write this in my capacity as a friend of SIWI, a member of the World Water Week’s Scientific Programming Committee, and a partner of our collective cause. I believe that you, as a true ambassador for water, have the power to help make a change.

The opportunities I see for you are:

• Raise your hand to join the new SIWI Board.
• Join the new to be named Donor Group.
• Become a vocal active supporter for the future of World Water Week and SIWI as a global catalyst.

Join a group of Active Advisors to hold the organization accountable considering its legacy and the future opportunities.

If you are willing to consider one of the above, please reach out.

With the support of other active supporters, I will be hosting roundtable brown bag lunches during World Water Week in Stockholm, (Level 5 Balcony), every day at 13:00, under the title “From Stockholm to the World – What’s Next?” , with the ambition to help co-create the future of SIWI and the World Water Week. 

If you in principle consider any of the roles/actions described, such as joining new Board or the Donor Group, the SPC Chair, Jon Lane will assemble a group to meet the current Board members during World Water Week to explore possible ways forward.

We have no mandate to make any promises or decisions regarding SIWI’s future or organization; We reach out to you in our capacity as friends of SIWI and water, trying to help safeguard the future of World Water Week by providing SIWI with a diverse, representative, and credible governance.
 
I look forward to hearing from you.
 
My very best regards,
 
Henk Ovink  #weareallwaterambassadors