The Asia-Pacific Water Forum (APWF), which Japan Water Forum acts as its secretariat, organized its 27^th Governing Council Meeting on 20 October 2021 online. Forty-eight officials from the APWF members, Kumamoto City, co-hosts of the 4th Asia-Pacific Water Summit (APWS), and the 4th APWS host supporting organizations in Japan joined the meeting.

The meeting was chaired by Mr. Ravi Narayanan and Ms. Changhua Wu in their capacities as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Governing Council of APWF. APWF Secretariat shared the 4^th APWS organizing plan to decide the conference style to organize it on 23-24 April 2022. APWF Secretariat also presented their updated ideas about the thematic discussion points to hear the APWF members’ opinions and feedbacks about the Skelton document of the 4^th APWS declaration and how to connect the Summit Declaration document with the Parallel Thematic and Integrated Process Sessions. The participants also discussed the way of preparation of each parallel thematic session.

Moreover, as the initiatives of APWF members looking ahead to the 4^th APWS and beyond, Global Water Partnership Southeast Asia proposed Water Security Open Program for the joint actions among multi-stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific. UNESCO Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific presented “Water-related SDGs Assessment Report from Water Cycle Management perspectives.” He and APWF requested the APWF members and their partner organization provide good practices in Asia and the Pacific.

JWF will proceed with the preparation of the 4th APWS by collaborating with multi-stakeholders in Japan and overseas. JWF will try its best to share forward-looking solutions and practices to  Heads of State and Government and support their policy decisions towards a resilient,  inclusive, and sustainable society by resolving various water-related issues in the recovery of COVID-19 in the region.