In the wake of mounting global water crisis, particularly among the developing countries, the need and urgency for mutual cooperation in managing water resources, sharing each other’s experiences and technologies assumes added significance. Most of the developing countries are endowed with inadequate capacities for the sustainable management of water resources.
It is happy augury that in recent decades some developing countries have achieved commendable progress in their efforts for managing water resources with the assistance their development partners and the concerned UN agencies. However, these endaevours on the part of few do not help tide over the water crisis for the developing countries and more persistent and sustained efforts on priority basis are called for.
The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has rendered necessary support for strengthening the environmental aspects of water in consonance with its mandate to the developing countries. These efforts, inter alia, include use of the ecosystems approaches, within the framework of its Water Policy and Strategy (WPS) and the Bali Strategic Plan for Technology Support and Capacity Building (BSP).
The support extended by the UNEP includes the development of the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) plans in response to the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. The UNEP extended its support to countries in South-East Asia, Central Asia, Northern Africa, Western Africa, Southern Africa and Latin America through the project, “Support to the developing countries in formulation of national IWRM plans (2005-2007).”
The capacity for addressing the environmental aspects of water management is even more limited due to the fact that training initiatives for most senior water managers tends to focus on the social and economic aspects with minimum consideration of the environmental aspects. However, some developing countries have acquired expertise in one or more IWRM disciplines while other countries need assistance in the same disciplines.
According to Thomas Chiramba, a UNEP official, the challenge is to bring the countries together in a South-South Cooperation (SSC) arrangement in order to address capacity gaps and to find an operational model for exchanging knowledge, expertise and other forms of capacity building approaches. Since most senior managers are male, it is also a challenge to ensure that capacity building takes the gender balance into consideration.
In order to meet this challenge, UNEP has initiated a programme to facilitate the exchange of knowledge on the application of the ecosystems approaches in water policy formulation and implementation through the SSC mechanism. This programme is based on two workshops which were conducted in October 2007 and May 2008 specifically to identify priority areas in water resources management in developing countries and to articulate potential interventions for addressing these priorities using SSC modalities. A key outcome of these workshops was a draft: Water Capacity Building using the South-South Cooperation Mechanism Programme, which now serves as the basis for the formulation of this project concept. The workshops were attended by representatives from government, sub-regional organizations, and universities from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and West Asia.
The avowed objective of this project is to strengthen capacities of developing countries to apply ecosystems approaches in water policy formulation and implementation. It will capitalize on the existing good experiences and practices related to the use of ecosystems approaches in water policy formulation and implementation in developing countries and facilitate information and knowledge exchange between the countries.
This project will enable countries to access an updated “catalogue” of good practices and experiences and direct contact with relevant partners either through bilateral contacts or through larger dissemination events where one country’s experience will be demonstrated for a larger forum. It will also organize dialogue between countries to identify opportunities for cooperation. Where limited or no experience related to water policy and ecosystems are available within the developing countries, the project will (i) organize seminars to provide training and to encourage countries to apply specific strategies or methods to apply ecosystems approaches and (ii) explore the engagement of partners in the North (developed countries).
Although funding is required to kick-start the programme, its long term sustainability will be through entrenching it into long term bilateral cooperation partnerships between countries in the south with strategic support (technical and financial) from donor countries and multilateral development partners.
According to Thomas Chiramba, the main activities of the project are as follows:
(a) Facilitating knowledge exchange and awareness raising
Under this activity, the programme will build an extensive targeted inventory of resources, experts, and institutions with useful experiences on policy formulation and implementation. The inventory will be hosted in a user-friendly and searchable database shared between countries. The inventory will also be used to document case studies and a “catalogue of best practices” on incorporating eco-systems approaches in water policy formulation and implementation. The project will explore the use of the IW: LEARN platform for hosting the database. Meetings/ events will be held (e.g. on trans-boundary river basin) to raise awareness and develop norms on ecosystem approaches in IWRM, groundwater management etc.
(b) Skills development
This component will address the skills gap, among southern countries, in the application of ecosystem approaches in water policy formulation and implementation. Needs-based training activities will be developed for specific countries or groups of countries. The main target will be water practitioners and planners. The process will involve identifying and modifying existing training programmes, developing new modules to cover gaps, and working with training providers among public and civil society organizations to disseminate the programmes at different levels. It will also involve working with academic institutions to promote the incorporation of ecosystems approaches in water management using IWRM principles in relevant courses at under and post graduate levels. To raise the profile of women in water management, the training will ensure that women participate as trainers as well as trainees.
Indicative topics in which skills development and strengthening will be addressed (identified at the brainstorming workshop) include: ecosystem services and management, climate change, water quality, water pollution, groundwater management, rainwater harvesting, environmental flows, trans-boundary water management, water allocation, land use, modeling and assessment, environmental impact assessment and stakeholder participation. Countries will identify their priority areas from this list and will then introduce additional areas, where required for consideration as part of the skills development/strengthening process.
The project will use the tools developed under the project Ecosystem Management — Norway Partnership sub components Capacity building of relevant stakeholders on ecosystem management and Communication and training tool kit on the ecosystems approach. It will also use the rainwater harvesting training course to be conducted in collaboration with China and countries from East and Southern Africa
(c) Twining selected countries
Selected countries in the south will be twinned for the purpose of capacity building. This consists of exchange of expertise to improve capacity through the:
- Exchange of expertise to strengthen institutional mechanism for stakeholder participation, policy formulation, resource mobilization, planning, project management, inter institutions dialogue etc.
- Exchange of expertise to improve human resource capacity through study tours; secondment of personnel for on the job training, technical support for specific projects, development of policies and laws; and technology transfer etc.
Stakeholders and Beneficiaries
Government institutions responsible for formulating and implementing national water policies will, through the project, learn from experiences of other countries and have the possibility to request assistance to meet expressed needs. Networking with countries in similar conditions will provide unofficial benchmarking of own progress and open up for more direct bi-lateral contact on specific IWRM topics as the need rises. Through training events to be organized by the project, institutions will have the possibility to update their staff with new approaches, particularly women since there is gender imbalance, on the latest knowledge on the application of the ecosystems approaches in policy formulation and implementation and the possibilities to network with counterparts from other developing countries.
Participation of Women
Water management in many developing countries is dominated by men. The major reason is that boys are encouraged to study technical subjects while girls tend to take non technical subjects. The SSC model project should give preference to qualified women to show young girls and human resources managers that women can also thrive in this field.
Policy Makers
The SSC model project will assist politicians and decision makers to fulfill the national commitments given in connection with the water-related targets of the Millennium Development Goals. The project will address water resources management which has a direct impact on water and sanitation, food production as well as economic development not least in the rural areas.
It will also assist countries to establish common principles for the management of the trans-boundary waters. Inter-river basin interactions can be initiated by applying useful experiences from shared river basins between developing countries.
There are growing concerns related to environmental issues in developing countries where people demand that politicians and decision makers respond to these environmental challenges. Individuals, communities and NGOs expect transparency and will actively participate and contribute to the debate on how environmental issues related to water are addressed. The stakeholders, whose participation in water policy formulation and implementation is critical, can benefit from the SSC model project.
The SSC model project will contribute directly to the implementation of capacity building programmes at different levels. At the national level, numerous developing countries have included strengthening capacity in the water and environment sectors as priority areas in their UNDAFs. The specific areas of cooperation between countries, and hence the programme activity areas, can be formulated to respond to the specific priorities articulated in the UNDAFs. UNEP can also help to build on the new priorities as they emerge in revised UNDAFs.
Capacity-building is a priority to most sub–regional institutions in developing countries. At the regional level, regional environment bodies (e.g. African Ministers Conference on the Environment and Latin America Ministers of the Environment) have programmes for strengthening the capacity in ecosystems and water management using the BSP. The SSC model project can incorporate regional SSC elements that can be specifically designed to address capacity building gaps at the sub-regional and regional levels.
The SSC model project can help strengthen the capacity of developing countries to use water policy as a means of improving ecosystems management. Capacity building, using the BSP, has been identified as a cross cutting issue in all the 6 priority areas of the Medium Term Strategy. As the project addresses water, it fits into the following priority areas: ecosystems management, climate change, disasters and conflicts, environmental governance, and resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production.
The SSC model project will address capacity building using SSC which is a key mechanism for the delivery of the BSP. Further it builds on the UNEP BSP pilot projects implemented in ten African countries, three of which (Rwanda, Kenya and Lesotho) conducted a water capacity needs assessment as part of the implementation of their respective BSP pilot activities. The results from these assessments clearly showed the lack of capacity to address the environmental aspects of water which will now be addressed by this project.
It will further contribute to the following priority areas articulated in the UN Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development The capacity to predict, measure and analyze the physical, chemical, and ecological factors impacting human well-being and provision of ecosystem services, through impact assessment, monitoring and evaluation, applied research and technology development, so that reliable data are synthesized and used for policy formulation and decision-making.
Estimated Risks
- Staff turnover. Qualified staff working for government is often recruited by the private sector after having been trained on specific topics, particularly in developing countries. On one hand the project may contribute to improved capacity for government institutions, on the other hand the project may – through training events – qualify individual persons for jobs outside the institution. All development projects are in this dilemma, which cannot be avoided. Ways to delay/reduce the staff turnover include signing contracts with those staff selected for specific training securing their “loyalty” for a certain period after the training event and assigning them to train others on the job.
- Focus on water supply and sanitation goals. In its struggle to satisfy the relatively easily quantifiable target for water supply and sanitation installation to be met by year 2015 by all developing countries there is a risk that the countries might “postpone” environmental investments when implementing their IWRM plans. Therefore the challenge for the project is to introduce easily quantifiable indicators for action supporting the ecosystems in the national IWRM plans which will show progress.
India’s Role
India is a vast country having been endowed with ample natural resources including water in the form of rivers, snow-clad mountains, glaciers as well as plenty of rainfall. However, like rest of the world, India is also confronted with the problem of depleting underground water resources and shrinking glaciers owing to ongoing climate change. Besides, most of India’s rivers have their origins in the neighbouring countries. Thus, the South-South Cooperation model is more suited to India as to other developing courtiers as well.
India has water-related problems with Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and China. The successful implementation of this model can benefit India as well as its immediate neighbours and concomitantly its implementation can be instrumental I ushering in prosperity for all the courtiers of South Asia as well as peace and stability. Thus, India should set an example by implementing SSC model so that other countries can also emulate it.
The adoption of SSC model project corresponds to India’s ambitious role as a rising superpower in the region as well as in the international arena.
Article published in THIRD CONCEPT/April 2009 Issue/Vol-23/No.266
