Wetlands International Europe has been chosen as a member of the Global Gateway Civil Society and Local Authorities Dialogue Platform (GG Dialogue Platform).
The Policy Forum on Development established it as a working group to aid the European Commission in ensuring that Global Gateway (GG) aligns with its principles by contributing to sustainable investments and achieving its objectives. The dialogue platform will convene civil society organisations (CSOs), local authorities (LAs), and regional, global, and European civil society to discuss policy issues on a horizontal level. This will include the consideration of addressing inequalities within the framework of the GG strategy. The platform will serve as a space for CSOs and LAs to offer feedback on the rollout of GG, taking into account varying investment priorities and geographic contexts. Additionally, it will foster collaboration between these entities and the European Commission by providing opportunities to engage in country-level GG partnerships, which supplement local consultations.
The first gathering of the Platform took place on 24 October 2023, it was a plenary meeting for all members. The minutes of the meeting can be found here.
The objectives of the meeting were to initiate a structured dialogue with civil society and local authorities in the framework of the GG strategy and gather key messages on how the dialogue platform can contribute to the GG as a values-based strategy and to sustainable investments.
Wetlands Internation Europe will provide significant contributions to this platform since wetlands can be a critically important entry point for countries, companies, cities and citizens committed to nature and climate positive transitions, by virtue of their central role as carbon sinks, in capturing, storing and regulating water and nutrients and in adaptation to climate change. Ensuring that wetlands are considered as a key element in the green transition and towards the achievement of EU’s climate ambitions is one of our priorities and is inseparable from the goals of the GG dialogue.
Through our network, we could support the implementation of the existing laws and initiatives and participate in the assessment of projects and in building a dialogue on how countries spearheading the energy transition should take actions to minimise harm to environment and society. Investments in ecosystem-based approaches such as wetlands restoration and Integrated Water Resource Management should be considered as ‘no-regret’ actions – and always a good investment –as they serve multiple purposes, including the development of sustainable livelihoods and climate change adaptation and mitigation, in addition to reduced disaster risk.