Reflecting on AGWA at 16 and Charting the Path Ahead
AGWA has reached the grumpy promise of adolescence. Next month, we turn 16, with all of the enthusiasm, excitement, and energy of any teenager.
When AGWA started in 2010, the world felt reasonably “orderly” — we were in the recovery stage of the 2008 global financial crisis, but the basic structure of the international rules-based system and most fundamental relationships between countries and international organizations seemed intact and assured. We had a shared sense of order that seemed solid and clear. Challenges and challengers certainly existed, but mostly the world seemed pretty predictable.
The climate world itself had a clear sense of stability — carbon and climate mitigation dominated as an issue, and adaptation and resilience were making slow but palpable progress. We were inching towards the Paris Agreement of 2015. The water community was dominated by a relatively small number of international organizations and issues, advancing SDG 6 — also to come in 2015. Climate change was certainly not one of those issues for most water organizations. AGWA was the first and for many years the only champion for water and climate at that point.
Next month, we will hold an annual general member’s (AGM) meeting to take stock of where we are in 2026 and where we should go, but AGWA’s world does not look like it did in 2010 at our founding or for many years afterwards. And AGWA itself looks little like it did in 2010 either.
Today, the rules-based order is more like a guidelines-based order, or perhaps a rules-based disorder. AGWA itself is well known and established, with a global presence. And almost any discussion of water resources, policy, and management outside of the context of climate adaptation and resilience seems strange if not irrelevant. So far (knock on wood), AGWA has proven to be durable and flexible, not immune to larger changes but mostly managing with them.
This is the context for AGWA at 16 and the frame for our focus for the AGM this year. We’ve made some bold changes over the past dozen months, with some important new initiatives in process.
The AGM is where we want to hear from members about several issues:
How we choose and guide our leadership, especially the open board seats.
With the launch of AGWA Europe next month, guidance on how we best work within and beyond the European Union. We will have a new model for engagement and membership, as well as a new separate board. We see AGWA Europe as a separate, more regionally focused organization than the US-based organization.
How both organizations navigate a world with both an increasingly complex set of relationships — some emerging, some weakening, many in growing incoherence — at the same time that resilience is more necessary than ever, for more groups, and founded in the power of water.
Take this note as an invitation to come with suggestions, questions, and an open mind. Please join us there, in person or virtually.
John Matthews
Corvallis, Oregon, USA