Confronting water insecurity: Past, present, and future of global institutions and multilateral cooperation

Name: Confronting water insecurity: Past, present, and future of global institutions and multilateral cooperation
Start: 2026-10-21T12:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-10-21T13:00:00-04:00
Location: Private Location (sign in to display)

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Academic Book Talk Water Security

Wed, Oct 21, 2026

12 PM – 1 PM EDT (GMT-4)

Private Location (sign in to display)

25

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Registration

Options	Sales Start	Sales End	Availability	Price
Option RSVP (CUID holder only)	Sales Start -	Sales End -	Availability 19 Spots Left	Price FREE
Option RSVP (non-CUID holder) For guests without a Columbia ID: Make sure your name matches your government-issued ID. After you sign up for this event, we will register a guest pass for you to access the SIPA building. If approved, you will receive a one-time QR code for attending this event. You must present the QR code for entry along with your government-issued ID (at the 118th street entrance: 420 West 118th Street, New York, NY 10027).	Sales Start -	Sales End Oct 19, 2026 at 5 PM	Availability 6 Spots Left	Price FREE

Note: There is a limit at 1 ticket per person for this event.

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Details

Photo. Flyer for Confronting water insecurity: Past, present, and future of global institutions and multilateral cooperation

The event will feature a discussion with Roberto Lenton, the author of a new book entitled Confronting Water Insecurity, which provides an account of the role of multilateral cooperation and global institutions in transforming science, policy, and practice for water security from 1945 to 2024 - a period characterized by significant disparities in water security between low- and high-income countries, ever-rising water use, and growing concerns about the harms of climate change and other disturbances on the global water cycle.

The book follows the quest for water security as it transformed from an issue driven primarily by local or national interests into one of global concern. It offers lessons from the successes and failures over the past 80 years that can help us imagine the new approaches needed to ensure that the world can meet the next generation of water challenges.

The event will start with a conversation about the book between the author and his son James Lenton (SIPA MIA '05), Senior Director for US Programs at Church World Service in New York. This father-son conversation will be followed by a Q&A and open discussion with the audience about the issues and questions raised by the book.

A limited number of copies of the book will be available at the talk as well as flyers with information on how to purchase it at a discount.

Food Provided (Light Lunch will be provided)

Speakers

Roberto Lenton

Roberto Lenton is a specialist in water, environment and international development with a civil engineering degree from the University of Buenos Aires and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in hydrology and water resource systems from MIT. He has served in leadership roles at several global institutions, including as program officer at the Ford Foundation in New Delhi and New York, director general of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), director of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Division of UNDP, member and chair of the Inspection Panel of the World Bank, and founding director of the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska. A professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and recipient of an honorary L.L.D. from the University of Dundee, Lenton is the author or co-author/co-editor of four books on water issues and recently served as Chair of the Board of Governors of IWMI.

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Co-hosted with: MPA in Development Practice, Climate, Energy, and Environment Concentration