This book discusses needs related to capacity development for water resources management, including water supply and sanitation, in the context of the green economy. It showcases theoretical and practical approaches with proven success. Most contributions come from members and partners within the interagency mechanism, UN-Water. The 11 case studies in this book range from innovative design and delivery of capacity development programs related to water in the green economy, market mechanisms, and quality control procedures supporting capacity development success towards the practical implementation of programs to enhance individual and institutional capacity.
- Reducing the gap between social and private value of water resources is a prerequisite for the implementation of investments promoting water efficiency, especially in agriculture.
- Pragmatic, second-best solutions are available, and should therefore be pursued and tailored to local contexts.
- The development of more effective institutional arrangements is a precondition for efficient, result-driven and adaptive water management.
- Partnership challenges can be overcome by regular reviews of each individual's performance by the partners, good documentation of the project and access to these records, the transfer of experience from one staff member to the next one by the concerned partner, and by flexibility in allocating the coordination role between partner organizations.
- The partnership arrangement of UN-HABITAT, the four international partners and the local capacity builder aligned a broad international expertise base in the thematic areas and in capacity development with a wealth of local knowledge and experience that was accumulated in the same and earlier projects.
- IWRM needs to continuously evolve towards partnerships with water-using sectors whose policies and strategies are governed by many factors outside the water sector.
- The Green Economy concept, much like in the case of IWRM, presents further hurdles to dealing with the increasing level of complexity that comes with higher levels of integration. Implementation of such broader concepts is not straightforward and tensions arise when integrating across sectors, institutions, levels and scales.
- Although there sometimes is initial resistance towards the TEST project, the considerable water and economic savings rapidly achieved through the implementation of the TEST methodology means that the changes brought about are sustainable.
- The drinking water supply and sanitation sector "is not an island" (and of course neither is any particular service provider, no matter how large and significant). In other words, any problems of service coverage or quality do not originate solely in the sector's institutions (policies, laws, traditions, organization, etc.), nor can they be solved by these institutions alone.
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Funded By
- Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
- International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
- United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
- United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
- UNESCO
- United Nations Economic Comission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
Copyright
- Copyright 2012 UN-Water.
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