2025 year in review
Last year we marked our 15th anniversary with a year of significant achievements and growing impact: bringing water resilience to the forefront of global climate policy and action.
Championing the Global Goal on Adaptation
2025 was a historic opportunity to embed water considerations in global climate adaptation, and AGWA seized it. We played a central role in shaping the implementation of the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience, which includes a specific target on water resilience. Throughout the year, AGWA worked with technical experts and policymakers to develop indicators for tracking progress under the Global Goal on Adaptation, ensuring water and sanitation considerations were woven throughout all thematic and policy targets.
In March, AGWA co-authored a key online article with WaterAid and Sanitation and Water for All titled "Hydrating the Global Goal on Adaptation" advocating for water to be recognized not just as one target among many, but as a cross-cutting element connecting all aspects of climate resilience.
Advancing the Water Resilience Tracker
One of AGWA's flagship programmes, the Water Resilience Tracker continued expanding its reach across Latin America, Asia, and Africa. This tool helps countries assess and strengthen water resilience in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) as well as other economic and development planning frameworks.
Working closely with governments, AGWA provided tailored capacity-building support to help countries break down silos between ministries and develop integrated, water-sensitive climate plans. Water Resilience Tracker experts also launched the first iteration of their Global Trends report helping inform future action.
During a Water Resilience Tracker session on climate negotiation in Nepal ahead of COP30, AGWA's Executive Director John Matthews and Deputy Executive Director Ingrid Timboe highlighted the critical need to integrate water issues into UNFCCC negotiations - Watch >
Building Economic Bridges
Through our Water Resilience for Economic Resilience (WR4ER) initiative, AGWA engaged with macroeconomists, central bankers, and financial institutions to demonstrate how water resilience underpins economic stability. In January 2025, we hosted a webinar on "Assessing Water Resilience: The Intersection of Credit Ratings and Climate Adaptation," connecting climate adaptation to financial decision-making.
In May, the WR4ER team held another webinar, this time focused on the interaction between water resources and natural capital with the finance system and macroeconomic policy, and in particular the role of central banks - Read our key takeaways >
During a session at World Water Week AGWA's Executive Director John Matthews explored the space between reaction and action, between prevention and prosperity, during the Leveraging Water for Security and Resilience: Tilting Economies, Shifting Hydrologies session. As Matthews noted, "If we can build resilience through water, we can move from a reactive and defensive approach to climate change to imagining how we can thrive."
Towards the end of the year, the WR4ER team published a response to the European Water Resilience Strategy and hosted a session at COP30 focused on Ensuring Economic and Financial Stability through Resilient Systems.
Instead of asking "How do we survive water challenges?" we want to ask "How do we thrive with water advantages?"
This reframing transforms water investments from defensive insurance policies into proactive growth strategies.
Providing Guidance for Utility and Energy Resilience
Last year, AGWA began a few new projects aimed at providing more technical support and strategic input for utilities on climate resilience planning as well as the emerging issues around water-energy-data systems and AI — a topic only set to increase in importance in the years to come.
A preliminary set of activities in Mexico saw AGWA and partners working with a network of utilities across the country to provide training on how to incorporate climate change planning and resilience activities within their operations, while another workstream focused on building resilience in La Paz specifically.
To map out the complex landscape of actors and practices tied to energy resilience as it relates to climate, water, and AI, AGWA conducted research to support the US Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Dept. of Energy as they roll out a new Integrated Water-Power Resilience Project. AGWA continues to meet with industry actors, utilities, and policymakers to seek ways to share best practices for this evolving landscape, including an ongoing effort in the Indo-Pacific.
Scaling Up
AGWA continued its growth in 2025, both in terms of size and impact. Early in the year, we added our first EU-based staff, filling key roles to carry out our mission and serving as an expanded global footprint for an active EU region. Then in mid-year, our WRT team grew as well in order to continue carrying out the high levels of activity in numerous countries and as part of a large program of work.
Members elected two new members to the Board of Directors ahead of our Annual Meeting in August, with Claudia Sadoff and Lilian Daphine Lunyolo selected from an impressive list of candidates. Our global membership expanded as well, with new members signing up monthly to get more informed and engaged in the water and climate resilience space, representing young professionals all the way to retired individuals from a diverse set of fields and geographies.
Also in 2025, we formalized our engagement with important global partners. AGWA became a UN-Water Partner, joined Water Europe, and gained observer status to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Going Global
AGWA maintained an active presence at major international conferences throughout 2025:
Co-organized a session at June’s SB62 Bonn Climate Conference on creating synergies across Global Goal on Adaptation targets
Held our 15th Annual Members Meeting at World Water Week in Stockholm, as well as participating in multiple sessions on water and climate action and meeting partners, peers and new faces.
Joined the Alliance for Water Stewardship Summit, to advance climate and resilience issues in the CSR space and engage directly with the private sector.
Participated in the Sanitation and Water for All Sector Ministers Meeting in Madrid, advocating for resilience thinking in the WASH space while honoring the legacy of Catarina de Albuquerque.
Attended COP30 in Belém, Brazil, organizing and speaking at numerous events on water resilience, the Global Goal on Adaptation, and integrated climate planning [link to session videos]. Read some of our Key Takeaways >
Engaged at the IWRA Congress in Morocco, including a session on the Water Resilience Tracker.
Presented or attended numerous other events, such as utility conferences, finance summits, agricultural symposiums, and regional policy forums.
Looking Forward
Through 2025, AGWA demonstrated that water is not just one element of climate adaptation, but the connective tissue binding together health, energy, agriculture, ecosystems, and economic resilience in a changing climate.
Over the past 15 years, our best indicator of success has been through you – our members network. Serving you with insights and tools, and in turn seeing the transformation you’ve been making in your work, day in and day out.
The scale and scope of the climate crisis is growing, and so must our response. We are redoubling our efforts to grow AGWA and expand our footprint, we are investing in our own capacity, and we hope you can help.
One of several exciting developments in that AGWA is in the early stages of forming a sister organization registered in the EU to open AGWA to new partnerships and opportunities for climate resilience programming — both within Europe and globally.
Expansion into the European Union is one of many ways we will better meet our ambition to ensure that communities don’t just survive the ongoing climate crisis but build resilience through water adaptation and thrive in the face of uncertainty.