Water Governance in Europe & CIS

Experts meet virtually to tackle water challenges

UNDP has launched its first online knowledge fair on water, backing the call to action in this year’s Human Development Report to put water and sanitation at the heart of the global development agenda.

The H2O Knowledge Fair (15-17 November) offers on-the-ground experiences of the issues highlighted in the 2006 Global Human Development Report (HDR) 2006, Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis. Organized by UNDP regional centres in Bratislava and Beirut for the countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Northern Africa, the three-day event aims to provide a forum to discuss issues, exchange good practices, and initiate new partnerships.

“We want to bring together experts and practitioners via the internet to discuss the challenges for the 21st century, and how to translate the HDR findings into concrete activities and new projects on the ground,” said Juerg Staudenmann, Regional UNDP Water Advisor in Bratislava.

The interactive fair features some 40 good practices and experiences in water governance from 18 countries, with multi-media presentations of projects and practices, virtual “booths”, three live discussion forums, profiles of practitioners and experts in the water community, as well as information and useful references and links.

The live discussion forums, which will take place over the course of the fair, tackle three main topics:

1. IWRM - National Planning Processes, Capacity Constraints and Link to Transboundary Water Management (Wednesday 15 November 2006)

• What is the situation in the region; and have the IWRM principles been widely adopted?
• What are the needs for capacity development and what instruments exist to support this?

2.  HDR 06 findings, relevance and implications for our regions – moving from words to action (Thursday 16 November 2006)

• How relevant are the issues and messages identified by the HDR 2006 for our (sub-) Regions; and how applicable the recommendations?
• How can we translate the findings in the HDR into action?

3. New Approaches for Stakeholder Management in Water-Projects (Friday 17 November 2006)

• Is the common methodology (incl. “TDA/SAP”) still valid; what other, or even better approaches exist (such as Multi-Criteria Analysis MCA) to identify and include stakeholders in transboundary projects?
• To what extent are aspects like sustainable development, poverty, improved public health, biodiversity etc. addressed in national water projects?

Funded through UNDP’s Global Knowledge Management Project, the online approach brings the fair directly to the participants and connects them virtually to each other and to a wealth of experience on water issues in these two regions.
 

www.waterfair.org

 

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