CDS (I) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 62 of 120

Correct — B, New York. The UN 2023 Water Conference met at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 22 to 24 March 2023, co-hosted by the Governments of Tajikistan and the Netherlands, and its deliverable was the Water Action Agenda, a register of voluntary commitments from governments and other stakeholders rather than a negotiated treaty text. It opened on World Water Day, 22 March. Its formal business was the midterm review of the UN Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation, 2018 to 2028. What made it notable was the gap it closed: the only previous UN conference devoted to water had met at Mar del Plata in Argentina in March 1977, forty-six years earlier, with delegates from 105 countries. This one ended three weeks before the CDS (I) 2023 exam was written, which is why it appears on the paper.

• (a)Washington, DC — Washington is the seat of the United States government and of the World Bank and the IMF, not of the United Nations. UN conferences of this kind convene at Headquarters in New York or at one of the other UN offices.
• (c)San Diego — San Diego hosts no UN body at all. It is in the list as a plausible-sounding American city and nothing more.
• (d)New Delhi — India was busy with international summitry in 2023 — it held the G20 presidency and hosted the Leaders' Summit in New Delhi that September — which makes this tempting. The water conference was not an Indian event; it was a UN conference at Headquarters, co-hosted by Tajikistan and the Netherlands.

The United Nations has its Headquarters in New York, and the General Assembly convenes global conferences there when the subject cuts across the whole membership. Water had gone unusually long without one. The 2018 to 2028 decade of action on water and sanitation was declared to push Sustainable Development Goal 6 — water and sanitation for all — and the 2023 conference was its midpoint review. Because it produced voluntary commitments rather than binding obligations, its measure of success is whether those commitments are kept.

Three of the four options can be dismissed on the general rule that a United Nations conference convened by the General Assembly is held at a UN duty station, and among the four cities offered only New York is one. The New Delhi option is the interesting one, because 2023 really was a year of Indian hosting, and a candidate half-remembering the G20 calendar can talk themselves into it. The discriminator is the co-hosts: Tajikistan and the Netherlands led this process, Tajikistan having driven the water decade for years and the Netherlands bringing its long specialism in water management. India was a participant, not a host.

• The UN 2023 Water Conference met at UN Headquarters, New York, from 22 to 24 March 2023.
• It was co-hosted by the Governments of Tajikistan and the Netherlands.
• Its outcome was the Water Action Agenda, a set of voluntary commitments.
• It served as the midterm comprehensive review of the UN Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation, 2018 to 2028.
• The previous UN water conference was at Mar del Plata, Argentina, in March 1977, with delegates from 105 countries.

• Placing a UN conference in Washington because it is the American capital. The UN sits in New York.
• Letting India's 2023 G20 presidency pull an unrelated conference to New Delhi.
• Treating the Water Action Agenda as a binding instrument. It is a register of voluntary commitments.

As a venue question for a recent summit or conference, as a host-country question, or as a statement item on the outcome document.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The UN 2023 Water Conference was co-hosted by which two countries?

  • (a)India and Egypt
  • (b)Tajikistan and the Netherlands
  • (c)Brazil and Portugal
  • (d)Kenya and Sweden

  Answer(b) Tajikistan and the Netherlands — they led the process that produced the Water Action Agenda.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Sustainable Development Goal 6 is concerned with

  • (a)affordable and clean energy
  • (b)clean water and sanitation
  • (c)zero hunger
  • (d)life below water

  Answer(b) clean water and sanitation — the UN Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation was declared to push it, and the 2023 conference was that decade's midterm review.