In March 2003, the 3rd World Water Forum took place in Kyoto, Shiga and Osaka, Japan. Substantive principles, which were established from the outset, gave the tone and demonstrated the determination to involve all stakeholders.

To this end, new concepts were introduced such as a Virtual Water Forum and the Water Voices Project. Following up on its commitment from the 2nd Forum, the WWC launched the World Water Actions report, an inventory of over 3,000 local water actions. This Forum was the largest water conference in history, gathering 24,000 participants. A Ministerial Conference was held in parallel and brought together 130 Ministers. Hundreds of commitments to action were made from participants in both the Forum and the Ministerial Conference and it was requested for each session organizer to state what concrete output would follow their respective session.