Thank you everyone for attending the launch of the Household Water Insecurity (HWISE) Scale and a special thanks to our host, Arizona State University – International Development Office in Washington, DC.
In 2018, a high-level panel at the United Nations declared that this is a water-action decade with a need for higher resolution data. We were honored to have the Director of the UNESCO Liaison Office New York and Representative to the United Nations, Marie-Paule Roudil, present on the importance of water insecurity, especially for the 2030 United Nations Agenda. Her remarks noted how the HWISE- scale is a concrete and robust reply to what she has been hearing at the UN in New York.
We also thank Jon Clifton, Global Managing Partner with Gallup, for presenting the need for higher resolution data on water insecurity. He affirmed that just a rigorous methodology has been created to quantify happiness, financial inclusion, hunger, and slavery, the next step is to quantify water insecurity.
This effort is led by Dr. Justin Stoler (Miami University), Dr. Sera Young (Northwestern University), Dr. Wendy Jepson (Texas A&M University), Dr. Chad Staddon (University of Bristol, England) and Dr. Amber Wutich (Arizona State University). The network was formed in response to a call by scholars, policymakers, and international program officers for better metrics on household-level water access and use. Their work is being advanced with support from NSF’s Geography and Spatial Sciences Program.
We thank the attendees for a vibrant discussion on the use of the HWISE scale and look forward to advancing the scale in partnership with both UNESCO and Gallup in the 2020 round of the Gallup World Polls.
