Rome Water Dialogue 2026: all of CRPG's coverage in one place
An index of CRPG's 20 reports from the FAO Rome Water Dialogue 2026, session by session, from the water tenure session where CRPG spoke to the high-level Global Dialogue on Water Tenure.
From 12 to 15 October 2026, FAO held the Rome Water Dialogue 2026 at its headquarters in Rome during World Food Forum week. CRPG Director Mova Al'Afghani, PhD, took part as a member of the FAO Water Tenure Expert Group and spoke on the water tenure panel on the first morning. CRPG reported on every session that FAO recorded and streamed on UN Web TV. This page collects all of that coverage in one place, session by session, in the order the sessions took place.
Start with our overview of CRPG's own contribution: Making invisible water users visible: CRPG at the Rome Water Dialogue 2026.
Monday 12 October: strengthening governance of water tenure
- Making invisible water users visible: CRPG at the Rome Water Dialogue 2026
- FAO presents draft principles for the responsible governance of water tenure in Rome
Session recording: UN Web TV.
Monday 12 October: restoring degraded agricultural lands
- Restoring degraded farmland: the missing piece of land degradation neutrality
- 'Rights before restoration': the Rome Water Dialogue's restoration panel puts tenure at the centre
Session recording: UN Web TV.
Tuesday 13 October: drought management and irrigation
- 'More than 40 plans, but only six investment portfolios': ministers on drought and irrigation at the Rome Water Dialogue
- 'We pay three times over': FAO and the development banks on the cost of drought unpreparedness
- Where irrigation pays: FAO launches IRMA, and lenders warn that irrigation raises the stakes for land and water rights
Session recording: UN Web TV.
Wednesday 14 October: the high-level Global Dialogue on Water Tenure
- 'Pricing is not privatization': QU Dongyu opens the high-level Rome Water Dialogue on water tenure
- 'Scale up, scale up, and scale up': Retno Marsudi and UN DESA chart the road from Rome to the UN Water Conference
- 'Land rights sit in one law; water rights sit in another': UNCCD backs the water tenure principles
- From a gap in the tenure guidelines to Abu Dhabi: the road to the water tenure principles
- 'Will I get my water?': Stephen Hodgson presents the twelve draft principles for the responsible governance of water tenure
- Food and water must never be instruments of pressure: Türkiye raises Gaza at FAO's water tenure dialogue
- An outpouring of support for responsible water tenure at the high-level Rome Water Dialogue
- Governance and investment belong together: clear water rights "determine whether investment works or not", says ADB
- 'Do not keep this project in your drawer': UN Special Rapporteur Pedro Arrojo on the water tenure principles
- 'You cannot do it without transparency': Barbara Schreiner on water tenure, integrity and implementation
- 'Farmers are not victims': Indigenous, youth and farmer voices on water tenure at the Rome Water Dialogue
- 'Who has the strongest pump': Beth Bechdol closes the high-level Rome Water Dialogue
Session recording: UN Web TV.
Thursday 15 October: the Youth Assembly
Session recording: UN Web TV.
Related
During the Dialogue week CRPG also released its water tenure tools as open source:
- Using AI skills to conduct a water tenure analysis
- Build your own water tenure storymap: CRPG's engine is now open source
For background on the concept, see water tenure on Know CRPG, and the programme on FAO's event page.
A note on sources. Each report states its own sources. Where the UN has published a transcript, quotations were checked against it; where it has not, they were taken from the sessions' English audio channel on UN Web TV and will be checked against the UN transcript when it appears. Corrections are noted at the foot of each article. Images: ©FAO, stills from FAO's webcasts on UN Web TV.
