SYMPOSIUM DAILY INNOVATION Innovations in the Water Sector

 

Friday 31 May 2013

Reflections, Recommendations and Closing  

Welcome to the final and last day of the 5th Delft Symposium on Water Sector Capacity Development. Today we will discuss innovative Capacity Development approaches and how they help to better mobilize local knowledge. On Wednesday, the first Symposium day, we discussed ‘challenges’ for the water sector, and yesterday we shared ‘experiences’ by presenting country case studies and methods, tools and indicators to measure progress and impact. These experiences were fed into the final theme on ‘innovation’ that will be discussed today.

Join today’s plenary reflections on the Symposium outcomes and recommendations at 14:00 hrs this afternoon, followed by a panel discussion on ‘The Way Forward’ at 15:00 hrs. Also, we look forward to welcoming you at the Closing Ceremony in A1 at 15:45 hrs.  

Experience serious gaming Join the special lunchtime session where you can play serious games and experience it yourself. The games will take place at 13:00 hrs. and 13:30 hrs. in A2 and A3. Games to be experienced and demonstrated include: Deltaviewer (Tygron), AquaRepublica (DHI), Libra (UNESCO-IHE) and Marine Spatial Planning Challenge (TUDelft). Serious games are increasingly used to give insights to policy makers, managers and to support well-informed decision making processes. The session (26) at 11:00 hrs. in A2 will explore what role games can play in Capacity Development and in water management, how games need to be designed and applied, and how their potential can be maximized and their use promoted.

Uta Wehn de Montalvo, Senior Researcher and Programme Coordinator at UNESCO-IHE: "While it is encouraging to see that the international debate on the SDGs now seems to recognize the importance of capacity development for attaining them, we need to anchor capacity development in the SDGs with concrete targets and/or indicators."

During this morning's plenary session on Challenges in Capacity Development for the water sector, Uta Wehn de Montalvo, Senior Researcher and Programme Coordinator at UNESCO-IHE, provided an overview of recommendations and next steps after yesterday’s discussions on ‘Challenges’. Main points included the expression for a need to formulate a single water-related Sustainable Development Goal includes Capacity Development. Challenges and responses for water education addressed the limited capacity and skills and the lack of R&D, insufficient on-the-job training in this area. Strengthening regional and country networks and regional partnerships, developing (young) professionals’ capacity to cooperate and

contribute to solutions are key recommendations.

In exploring Water Leadership development, the session 3 group recommended to develop tailored water leadership programmes at the national level linked to agriculture, forestry, environment, and other related sectors. Next steps include the set-up of a community of practice on leadership in the water sector. In the 4th session on ‘Boosting proficiency in water professionals’ the main recommendation was to implement a proficiency certification scheme to fill the gap in the present education systems as well as the development of a competency framework to equip organizations to manage the complexities of IWRM. It was mentioned that Capacity Development allies need to be involved, for example media organizations. Finally effective Capacity Development includes a methodological approach and ways to encourage stakeholders to develop & implement actions in their own communities.

 

Morning plenary outcomes

Recommendations to tackle Challenges  

 

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Session 7

“We should focus on impact-based results rather than input-based results” By Kenny Wang  

The session on ‘Water Operator Partnerships (WOPs): How to make them better’, was highly informative with viewpoints spanning across many different countries and scenarios. However, despite the wide range of cases, there were commonalities between all of them, which resonated throughout the presenters’ speeches. The issue of WOPs being a short-term partnership was addressed by all speakers and various solutions for creating longer sustainable partnerships were suggested. Philippe Marin, Senior Water and Sanitation Specialist at the World

Bank, proposed Second Generation Contracts to help elongate the partnership, which was an example from Algiers. Maria Sanz, PhD Fellow at UNESCO-IHE and the Rotterdam School of Management, used researched evidence to show that one aspect of a WOP’s success is derived from long term collaborations. Finally Yolanda Gomez, WASH Programme Coordinator at Streams of Knowledge, voiced a similar opinion with the Twinning programme developed with the Asian Development Bank where success is founded upon having continued relationships beyond the partnership

sessions. On the other hand, another recurring theme was that of conflict between the various stakeholders during the partnership, as Andrew Thawe, Chief Executive of Blantyre Water Board emphasized: “It is vital to have transparent water governance linked to accountability. Also, we should focus on impact-based results rather than input-based results as a means to align the strategic agenda of all relevant parties. Overall, WOP in any format targets Capacity Development from organization to organization, rather than from individual to individual.”

Session 9

"Don't bring the people to the town, but bring the town to the people" (Isaac Liabwel) By Stefan Siepman

Liberia is coming from a period of war, which destroyed the infrastructure, institutions and human capital. Directly after the war, humanitarian support was the priority. Liberia is currently in a phase of developing new strategies and policies. According to Christine Ochieng, Programme Analyst on the Water and Sanitation Programme Africa at the World Bank, presented her case in the session (9) on ‘Country case studies on Bangladesh, Liberia and South Sudan. “Liberia faces some difficulties in this process. A lack of competences is apparent at all levels. This is clearly caused by the war,” she explains. “There are problems in terms of quality, but in quantity as well. Therefore, technical training institutions should be built in order to increase the number of highly educated engineers. Long-term partnerships with international institutions are crucial to make Capacity Development in Liberia effective.”

South Sudan has similar challenges. "But the policies are already in place," said Isaac Liabwel Chadak Yol, Under-Secretary to the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) of Juba in the Republic of South Sudan. He explains that there is a shortage of specialized trainings and expressed the need for national training and research centres, located in different states, not just in the capital. "Don't bring the people to the town, but bring the town to the people", Yol stated. Maryam Darwesh Said, Consultant to the MWRI, stated that a different governmental mindset is needed. “The government of South Sudan considers trainings a loss, especially whenever governmental employees switch to NGO's although they are still serving the country,” he explained. In general, a more cooperative mind-set is necessary to bridge the capacity gaps. The third case study showed that the water-related issues in

Bangladesh are mainly caused by political polarization. This has a negative impact on the implementation of new plans. Therefore, Bangladesh is too reliant on the pressure of development agencies in order to make actual changes. Former Director-General in Water Resources Planning Organization (WARPO) of the Bangladesh government, M. A. Quassem, believes that water leadership is needed to break this negativity.  

Bert Diphoorn, Senior Advisor at UNHABITAT: “A result of our successful Capacity Development efforts is that well-trained water professionals are a valued commodity in other sectors as well. They often end up in the private sector, which causes brain drain in the water arena.”

 

   

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Falco Aquilar, Colombia: "At an event like this you get the opportunity to meet water professionals from different levels from the water sector from all over the world. This gives a multi-perspective experience of the same challenge, in this case water."

Tania Akolgo from the International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, originally from Ghana: "Sustainable development is a necessity but that alone is not sufficient. It not only environmental, but also economical and social, and even cultural."

Vijay Padmanabhan from India "Partnerships are the most important aspect of this symposium as well as effective communication between different stakeholder groups. Also how can developed countries share knowledge with developing countries." Salwa Mergani, NGO

based in Sudan & the Netherlands: "More partnerships, integrity and commitment are needed between the North and South, as it is the only way to improve our efficiency."

James Patterson: "There is a great opportunity to bring together research, policy negotiation and practice."

Damien Indij (LA-WETnet): "We should monitor the impact of capacity development activities we are delivering and keep track of the needs at the local level so we can respond to them in the most efficient way".

How do YOU want to take the lead? Have you been inspired during the Symposium to start a concrete initiative? Do you have a concrete commitment in mind for how you want to move forward with capacity development? Then please let us know! You will have the chance to announce your activity during the plenary session at 14:00 hours in A1. Please contact Uta Wehn de Montalvo or one of the Symposium assistants.

Widisono Handoko, from Indonesia: "Making changes cannot wait and must start now, everyone has to be involved. This includes transitioning from old to young leadership."

Jeroen Helder "For me personally, it is about the importance of communication in water management and the abundance of similar problems encountered all over the world. One observation is that in general we agree on ways to enhance capacity development, we are just trying to find the right ways to implement it. We do not disagree."  

What is the key message that you will take home from this Symposium?  

Shirley Yadiswa Sgqolana, Cap Net, South Africa "For me it's about monitoring and evaluation. Andras said "if you can't measure it you can manage it". If you do not do so, you won't be able to see what has the most impact, and what needs to be improved"

 

 

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EDITORIAL TEAM SIGNS OFF This Symposium Daily is developed for you by the UNESCO-IHE Communications Team. We have one more digital issue to send you when you get home with a recap of today’s sessions and final recommendations. We hope you enjoyed reading the Dailies and hope you will join us in thanking our external editorial volunteers: Caridad Camacho, the International Water and Sanitation Centre IRC, Kenny Wang, Delft Technical University, Pilar Lopez Zamorano, TheWaterChannel.tv and Linda Lilienfeld, Let's Talk About Water. Special thanks go to designer Peter Stroo for putting in the extra hours at night to make every issue nice and attractive to read and take home!

See you at the next Symposium! The Communications Team signs off!

Wim Glas, Ed Gerritsen van der Hoop, Jacqueline Koot, Laura Kwak, Emma Meurs, Alida Pham, Eric Pluim, Stefan Siepman, Peter Stroo and Maria Laura Sorrentino.  

SOCIAL MEDIA Follow and join the conversation on Twitter via the hashtag #cdsymp. Highlights will also be posted on the UNESCO-IHE Facebook page and LinkedIn group. Become a fan! LIVE STREAM The plenary sessions were live streamed and recorded. You can find the can be viewed online via a live stream. Share the link with your colleagues: www.unesco-ihe.org/CD-Symposium.

We would love to hear your impressions, ideas, quotes, thoughts, photos or any other input you may have. Send an email to communications@unesco-ihe.org.

Session 12

“Communicating across borders without boundaries” By Pilar Lopez Zamorano

Water education and capacity development are vital in realizing the potential of water cooperation. In the session (12) on Capacity Development for Water Cooperation – cases of success, Bert Diphoorn, Senior Advisor at UNHABITAT, pointed out the necessity of raising awareness as one of the most important goals for this International Year for Water Cooperation. All panellists reached consensus on the need to work together towards an integrated approach whereby all users are involved in the decision-making processes. They presented different cases in which efforts were made to create a state of knowledge

by building tools, e-learning and training kits, tailored to each specific case. Neno Kukuric, Head of the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Center, introduced the Diktas Project carried out in Southeast Europe. An example of cooperation between countries across different sectors: legal, social, environmental, hydrological, as well as ministries, all actors whom are not used to work together. The point needed to be made that to reach a common goal, experts, supervisors, teachers, but also local farmers need to work and communicate across borders without boundaries.  

Session 24 An inter-generational dialogue on water leadership” By Stefan Siepman

"The number one commodity is not water, but leadership. And leadership is serving others." UNESCO-IHE Rector András Szöllösi-Nagy started the inter-generational dialogue pointing out that the young professionals of today have the daunting task to solve the water problems of the future. Encourage inter-generational cooperation is therefore vital. The panel consisting of five young professionals pleaded for more involvement. They stated: "Empowerment is Capacity Building. The first step is to be trusted." Young professionals working in the field should be more involved in the planning phase of national or local strategies. This triggered the dialogue. Many in the audience were not entirely convinced of these arguments, but disputed that main priorities should be focusing on the professionals in the field.  

During his presentation of the Indonesian case study, Hafied Gany, Evaluation Consultant at BAPPENAS in Indonesia, showed that the current decentralization strategies have a negative effect on capacity development. He stated that a continuous and coherent HR Policy is needed, because it is a determinant factor assuring capacity development of the water sector. This policy should entail promising career opportunities, which clearly is a more positive approach than

forcing staff into the process of decentralization. "It is important to stimulate internal innovation and service delivery." Ossama Salem, CEO of Capacity Building International, stated that accountability plays a crucial role. "In Egypt there is a lack of horizontal accountability to citizens. The only accountability is towards the boss. This causes deficient capacity development and should therefore focus on improving institutions as well.”  

Session 10

"Overnight decentralization leads to loss of capacity” By Stefan Siepman