Industry Partnerships on Water

Building on the experience of the PPP work, the World Economic Forum is exploring a second phase of water work, focused on agriculture water use and water policy reform.

Agriculture uses more than 70% of global freshwater withdrawal, making the potential for water scarcity a critical risk for all stakeholders along the food and crop value chain.  Increasing competition for water from population growth, increasing urbanization and industrialization, as well as potential impacts of climate change, will further reduce the amount of water for agriculture. This tension is already resulting in escalating levels of conflict over a resource that may disrupt business operations and is vital both as a human right and an economic resource.

The Forum is catalysing a project that will bring together industry, government, the farming community, civil society and academic experts to:
 Explore water insecurity risks along the supply chain exacerbated by inaction; collaboratively develop risk mitigation strategies at all levels, both regulatory and market driven through multistakeholder dialogues
 Raise awareness of the issue and promote examples of success to key decision makers and implementers to shift the water debate from an environmental issue to an economic risk issue
 Identify opportunities and facilitate processes to support regional and national governments in water-scarce locations to drive policy change on water

The Forum will highlight the output of the project at key global events such as Forum’s Annual Meeting at Davos, Switzerland, Stockholm Water Week, and World Water Forum.

Who is involved?
Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, and Pepsico International are key champions in the development of the Food and Beverage Industry Partnership on water.

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