Success for online water course

Water and climate Water and the 2030 Agenda

In just the first three days, more than 4,000 people flocked to the new online course from SIWI and the UN’s SDG Academy. The free course keeps attracting new students who see this as a unique chance to understand the world’s biggest water challenges and interact with world-leading experts.

Therese Sjömander Magnusson, Lead Faculty for the course and Chief Operations Officer at SIWI, is extremely happy with the impressive turnout: “We’re very proud and very excited to deliver this open course with SDG Academy,” she said at a Facebook live event on Thursday 17 January, encouraging more people to register and to spread the word.

If you missed it, you can watch the live stream

The massive open online course Water – addressing the global crisis was launched on 14 January by SIWI and the United Nations’ SDG Academy. Both institutions feel more people need to understand the role water plays for humans, societies and nature. Only then is it possible to tackle challenges such as food security, health, natural disasters and global warming.

SIWI was asked to organize the training to create the most up-to-date course possible with the latest research on topics like the link between water and health, why agriculture must rethink its water use and how water can be a tool for peacebuilding. The modules were filmed during the 2018 World Water Week in Stockholm, the most important yearly event for the water community.

“Thanks to this, we’ve been able to create a unique course with many of the world’s leading experts. I hope many people will seize this rare opportunity to learn directly from them,” Therese Sjömander Magnusson says.

The course Water – addressing the global crisis explains how water is crucial to all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and features both academic lecturers and practitioners. After the twelve-week course, students will have a good understanding of key topics related to water scarcity, climate change, sanitation and much more.

“Not least importantly, the course prepares you to make a difference. This is really something that is needed across the globe to tackle the water challenges we are facing,” Therese Sjömander Magnusson says.