AidEx 2025 - "Water as a catalyst for peace - Unlocking collaboration across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus"

Strengthening Humanitarian Cooperation: Geneva Water Hub Signs MoU with IFRC at AidEx 2025

We were honoured to contribute to AidEx 2025, the world’s largest humanitarian aid and development forum at Palexpo Geneva, where our Director General Prof. Mark Zeitoun spoke alongside leaders from IFRC, UNICEF / Global WASH Cluster, and other key organisations to explore how water can serve as an entry point for peace across the humanitarian–development–peace (HDP) nexus.

Together with IFRC, the Geneva Water Hub marked an important milestone with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
This partnership will advance joint operational work to protect water infrastructure in conflict zones and promote water diplomacy as a concrete tool for peacebuilding in fragile settings.

Discussions also highlighted joint initiatives under the Global Alliance to Spare Water from Armed Conflicts (GASWAC), showcasing how legal tools, scientific expertise and humanitarian practice can be brought together to protect civilian populations and strengthen resilience.

With attacks on water infrastructure rising globally, the discussion reinforced that water is no longer just a humanitarian need, it is a strategic pillar for peace and stability.

Advancing Geneva’s role as a hub for water cooperation and peace:
- Contributes to bridging humanitarian, diplomatic, and legal approaches to water in conflict
- Opens new avenues for collaboration with IFRC and key humanitarian partners through the MoU
- Strengthens shared efforts across International Geneva to protect water resources and support peacebuilding in fragile contexts

🔗 Protecting water is protecting peace - and collective action is essential to achieving it. Learn more about the Global Alliance here: https://www.genevawaterhub.org/what-we-do/protection-water-during-and-after-armed-conflict/building-legal-and-technical-knowledge