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Knowledge & Capacity Development Symposium: Empowering a New Generation
Strengthening capacity in water is a gamechanger for efforts to save the planet and its people, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Water, Retno L.P. Marsudi, said in a keynote speech at the opening of the 7th International Knowledge and Capacity Development Symposium, held at IHE Delft.
Knowledge & Capacity Development inclusivity track kicks off with an intergenerational roast
At the 7th International Symposium on Water and Capacity Development, the KCD inclusivity track kicked off with an intergenerational roast. The event provided an opportunity for young water professionals to challenge established experts. Through honest conversations about “brilliant failures,” power dynamics and impact on the ground, the event highlighted the need for intergenerational exchange and meaningful youth engagement. As the next generations create their own space in the water sector, the call for youth participation is growing louder.
Plenary Closure of the Knowledge and Capacity Symposium
After three days of debate and exchanges on empowering the next generation, the symposium concluded that the new generation includes anyone who is open to new ways of knowledge exchange. In the various session, delegates asked critical questions about the language and the terms used, about ethical donors, about North-South, South-South and South-North learning and about intergenerational exchange. Now it was the turn of the young water experts to take the stage and share their vision for a pathway forward. It is their task to compile the Delft Water Agenda 2.0. Bota Sharipova, IHE Delft PhD candidate, “If we are not sensitive to cultural, gender and other social imbalances, then we will perpetuate inequalities.”
Henk Ovink, Executive Director of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, summarized what he had heard from the team of young IHE Delft water experts. He expressed how difficult it is when facing changes in the existing systems that are perpetuating the problems we are encountering today and in the future: "In the context of changing everything, it takes real courage," he said.