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Newsletter
No. 11 – January 2026
Dear friends, colleagues and partners of ICWRGC,
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Although 2026 is already a few weeks old, the team from ICWRGC wishes you a Happy New Year. We look forward to continuing our cooperation and joint efforts for evidence-based water governance.
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Looking back on 2025
2025 was a special year for ICWRGC, as it further sharpened its profile. The publication of our ICWRGC Strategy 2030 was a key milestone. It was developed in close dialogue with our Governing Board, the German National Committee for the UNESCO and WMO water programmes, relevant ministries and our Scientific Advisory Board. The strategy defines our work along three core pillars:
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- operational global data services,
- research and education
- all feeding into science-based advice for decision-makers nationally and at UN level.
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We express our sincere thanks to Harald Köthe, who retired in 2025, for his long-standing leadership and commitment to international hydrology, which laid much of the foundation for today’s ICWRGC. We also thank the Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) for its continuous support and look forward to working closely with its new Director, Dirk Schwardmann. We thank all of our partners, supporters, and friends world-wide. Above all, personally I thank the ICWRGC team for their dedication across data operations, research and international cooperation.
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As of January 2026, I have been appointed Director of ICWRGC and Executive Secretary of the German National Committee for the UNESCO and WMO water programmes. I am grateful for this opportunity and look forward with great motivation to making my contributions in this new role.
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Looking ahead to 2026
2026 will be a pivotal year for global water policy, with the 2026 UN Water Conference and Germany’s co-chair role in Interactive Dialogue 5 on “Water in Multilateral Processes”. In a context of increasing pressure on multilateral institutions, ICWRGC sees transparent, shared and quality-assured knowledge through science, information and data exchange as a key contribution to trust and effective cooperation.
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Our priorities for 2026 include strengthening global drought forecasting, further developing our data centres, expanding international knowledge exchange, and reinforcing water quality as a core topic – including through our planned role in hosting the secretariat of the UNESCO International Initiative on Water Quality (IIWQ).
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ICWRGC is currently undergoing the formal UNESCO evaluation process as a Category 2 Centre, with the aim of entering its third programme phase from 2027 onwards. Our commitment to improving coherence and interoperability of water data, information and knowledge will remain central to our work. Especially in the current global context, we see a clear need to support the UN system and to recall the UNESCO Constitution, which calls for peace through international cooperation in science and education.
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We thank all partners and colleagues for their trust and collaboration. We look forward to continuing our joint work in 2026 – for robust science, reliable data and meaningful impact on water policy and practice.
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International Centre for Water Resources and Global Change (ICWRGC)
UNESCO Category 2 Centre
Secretariat German IHP/HWRP National Committee
Federal Institute of Hydrology
P.O. Box 200253 | 56002 Koblenz | Germany
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Phone: +49 (0)261 1306 5435
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