Yesterday at World Water Week 2026, Global Rights Compliance (GRC), together with the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), hosted the session “A Conflict-Sensitive Approach to Corporate Water Stewardship”, exploring what responsible corporate water stewardship looks like in conflict-affected and high-risk settings.
We extend our thanks to panellists Wayne Jordash KC, Rebecca Burton, Osnat Lubrani, Eline Suijlen, Jessica Johansson and Simon Toepfer, as well as Martina Klimes, Thomas Rebermark and Sanjida Shamsher Elora for guiding the discussion, and to everyone who joined and contributed their perspectives and questions.
The discussion highlighted several key challenges and priorities for advancing conflict-sensitive corporate water stewardship in practice:
- There is a lack of clarity of what conflict-sensitive corporate water stewardship means in practice and how companies can best implement it;
- There is missing translation of which frameworks apply in different situations and how they may help to foster conflict-sensitive engagement on the ground;
- Stronger coordination between companies, governments, humanitarian organisations and civil society is needed;
- Engagement of water users and stakeholders in conflict-settings is of particular importance and often breaking down in conflict also driven by a lack in guidance and tools that cater to these situations;
- There needs to be active engagement of all stakeholders, community members as well as the biggest polluters to jointly determine where support is needed and contribute to constructing tools that will foster conflict-sensitive CWS.
For GRC this is a call to action that we will take forward over the coming months. If you missed the panel discussion it will be made available shortly on SIWI’s YouTube channels.