Building Peace

The Geneva Water Hub discreetly uses water as a tool to diffuse tensions, build trust, and create conditions for positive peace by promoting collaborative solutions to water challenges. Guided by International Water Law, the Hub facilitates dialogues, mediates issues, and empowers local actors to integrate water into humanitarian, peacebuilding, and development efforts in various contexts.

With utmost discretion, the Geneva Water Hub harnesses the power of water to initiate processes aimed at diffusing tensions, fostering trust, and creating conditions conducive to positive peace. Our experience demonstrates that addressing water challenges collaboratively can alleviate tensions, enabling stakeholders to address the underlying political issues more effectively. Leveraging water's life-giving qualities, we work to prevent the escalation of conflicts and thaw cold relations. Emotional bonds forged through water serve as a catalyst for joint technical studies, while dialogue among interconnected water users forms the foundation for deeper relationships and understanding.

The Geneva Water Hub upholds the principles of International Water Law to guide its water peacebuilding activities. Recognizing that equitable arrangements are sustainable and beneficial for all parties involved, we advocate for the harmonization of national and international legal frameworks and promote flexibility to foster transformation and greater climate resilience.

We convene formal dialogues and facilitate informal conversations, mediate techno-political issues, host public roundtables, and facilitate challenging exchanges. During periods of heightened tensions, we offer off-the-record 'safe space' workshops for joint analysis, provide in-house research services on water resource management, and identify pathways for political resolution. Whether in fragile or stable contexts, the Geneva Water Hub empowers local actors to integrate water into humanitarian, peacebuilding, and development efforts.

Water for Peace Diplomacy in the Sahel

The Geneva Water Hub has been facilitating a dialogue on “Water as Driver of Peace in the Sahel” since 2018, with actors from development, humanitarian, peacebuilding and security communities. By applying the framework from the Global High-Level Panel on Water and Peace to the multifaceted crisis impacting the Sahel region, the Geneva Water Hub and its strategic partners have spearheaded a reflexion on how to use water as entry point to prevent and resolve conflicts at the local, intersectoral and transboundary levels.-

Water for Peace Diplomacy in Western Asia and North Africa (WANA)

The vision of the Geneva Water Hub extends to Western Asia and North Africa (WANA), a region which unfortunately faces protracted humanitarian crises, political uncertainty, civil unrest, and the impacts of climate change. The definitions of WANA vary widely, but we adopt the definition provided by the WANA Institute, which aligns with our commitment to human geography over political geography, our people-centred diplomacy, our basin-level approach, and our human rights convictions. By embracing this approach, we aim to offer innovative solutions to address current and potential conflict situations in the region, working with actors from humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding communities. -

Art for Water and Peace

At the Geneva Water Hub, we believe in the transformative power of music, theatre, film, poetry, and dance to ignite action and cultivate ambassadors for water and peace. We actively engage in and support artistic and cultural initiatives, with the aim to reach spur creativity, foster dialogue and exchange, and to the widest possible audience with the messages of water and peace.-

Water for Peace Diplomacy Global

Since 2018, the Geneva Water Hub has been working with regional and thematic partners to establish the Global Observatory for Water and Peace (GOWP) - a global platform of regional and local implementing partners from well-established, credible and neutral organizations committed to the agenda of water for peace. -

Methods of Diplomacy

The Geneva Water Hub uses water to improve relations. Peace re-enforcement diplomacy is employed to initiate or support processes aimed at improving social cohesion and inducing more effective forms of water cooperation. Pro-active diplomacy is employed where water-related issues increase social or political tensions. Détente and rapprochement diplomacy supports processes aimed at defusing tensions or building trust. -

Blue Peace

The Geneva Water Hub supports the aims and spirit of the Blue Peace programmes established by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).-

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