WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS

Wanjira Maathai, Managing Director for Global Partnerships and Africa, World Resources Institute - 5 minutes

Setting the Scene: What does it take, with many cities facing acute water risks, to accelerate financing to protect and sustain our most vulnerable people and ecosystems and the water basins they are dependent on by 2030? Setting the stage for the ACWA Fund announcement.

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OPENING REMARKS – 10 minutes

Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN High-Level Climate Change Champion, COP27 Presidency _____________________________________________________________________________

VOICES FROM CITIES - 10 minutes

• Hon. Thembisile Nkadimeng, Deputy Minister, Department of Cooperative Governance, South Africa

• Mayor Kedir Juhar, City of Dire Dawa

• Jane Weru, Executive Director, Akiba Mashinani Trust

• Lord Mayor Pudence Rubingisa, City of Kigali

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ACWA FUND LAUNCH- Moderated by: Ani Dasgupta, President, World Resources Institute- 15 minutes

Announcing the launch of the African Cities Water Adaptation Fund & partnerships to accelerate finance to scale implementation of high impact resilience solutions.

• Rene Van Hell, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ministry of Foreign Affairs • Kobie Brand, Global Director, ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center and Regional Director, ICLEI Africa

• Ambroise Fayolle, Vice President, European Investment Bank (EIB)

• Dario Soto-Abril, Executive Secretary and CEO of Global Water Partnership ____________________________________________________________________________________

Panel Discussion - 25 minutes

Moderated by Bogolo Joy Kenewendo, Special Advisor & Africa Director, UN High Level Climate Champions

• Rogier Van Den Berg, Acting Global Director, WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities (ACWA Fund)

• Alex Simalabwi, Executive Secretary, GWPSA-Africa & Director-Africa Water Investment Programme [VIRTUAL]

• Shirine Khoury-Haq, CEO Co-op, Water Unite Impact Fund [VIRTUAL] • Andrea Erickson-Quiroz, Managing Director for Water Security, The Nature Conservancy (TNC)

• Dana Omran, Director for Global Strategy & Africa, Resilient Cities Network, Resilient Community Impact Funds (RCI-Funds)

• Carol Chouchani/ Ali Aldabag, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia

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Interventions from Inner Circle- 30 minutes

Co-Moderated by Wanjira Maathai, Managing Director for Global Partnerships and Africa, World Resources Institute, & Bogolo Joy Kenewendo, Special Advisor & Africa Director, UN High Level Climate Champions

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A) Interventions from International Development Agencies- 5 minutes

Q. How can Sovereign Development Funds interact/align with the funds proposed by non-state actors to advance Urban Water Resilience?

1. Henk Ovink, Dutch MFA

2. Ambassador Jan Wahlberg, Ambassador for Climate Change, Finland 3. Vera Rodenhoff, Head of Division International Cooperation on Environment, Energy and Cities, BMWK

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B) Interventions from Development Banks (Multilateral Development Banks and National Development Banks) and Funds - 10 minutes

Q. How can MDBs & NDBs interact/align with the funds proposed by non-state actors to advance Urban Water Resilience?

1. Osward Chanda, Africa Development Bank (AfDB)

2. Kampeta Sayinzoga, Development Bank of Rwanda (virtual)

3. Muhammed Sayed, Development Bank of Southern Africa

4. Ibrahima Chiekh Diong, Africa Risk Capacity

5. Carlos de Freitas, Strategy Advisor, FMDV- Global Fund for Cities Development ____________________________________________________________________________________

C) Interventions from Private Sector (Corporates, Investment Funds and philanthropic foundations) - 15 minutes

Q. How does the collaboration between private investors and a non-state fund work? What are your aspirations for such collaboration?

1. Andrew Steer, Bezos Foundation

2. Frannie Leautier, SouthBridge Group

3. Abyd Karmaly, Bank of America

4. Catherine Roe, Elior UK (Virtual)

5. Brian Arbogast, Gates Foundation

6. Julia Prescott, Meridiam (Virtual)

7. Irene Karani, CIFF- Children’s Investment Fund Foundation

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D) Interventions from ACWA Platform Partners- 8 minutes

1. Vania Paccagnan, CDP

2. Claire Seaward, WaterAid

3. Themba Gumbo, CAP-NET UNDP

4. Seth Schulz, CEO, Resilience Rising

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Wrap Up: Wanjira Maathai, Managing Director for Global Partnerships and Africa, World Resources Institute (WRI)- 4 minutes

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REFRESHMENTS & NETWORKING

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Catalyzing Finance for Strengthened Water Resilience in African Cities