By Rebecca Welling of IUCN’s Water Programme
This was my first World Water Forum and it’s definitely been a learning experience! One main highlight has been to meet IUCN colleagues from the regions that I hadn’t yet met in person and to be part of such a supportive, friendly and hard working IUCN family. It’s also been a great opportunity to meet the experts and link up with former colleagues. 
I’ve been involved in the Forum in a variety of ways, but my main focus has been to support IUCN’s co-coordination of the several sessions on ‘Promoting Green Growth and Valuing Ecosystem Services’. Around 20 hours of sessions relating to green growth have taken place throughout the week. From discussions during these sessions and outside, it’s clear that a stronger focus on natural infrastructure and nature as a solution to our water challenges has taken root.
While change won’t happen overnight, these types of events provide a space for networking and meeting people to help you work out who you need to speak to make things happen. It’s better to see it as a ‘pit stop’ on a long journey to ensuring the sustainability of our planet and the livelihoods of the millions of us living on it.