Implementation Conference
Stakeholder Action For Our Common Future

Freshwater
Issue Paper V2, February 2002

Preamble
“Water is essential to our health, our spiritual needs, our comfort, our livelihoods, and our ecosystems. Yet everywhere water quality is declining, and the water stress on humanity and our ecosystems increases. More and more people live in very fragile environments. (…) The reality of floods and droughts touches increasing numbers and many live with scarcity. (…) The primary responsibility for ensuring equitable and sustainable water resources management rests with governments. It requires the participation of all stakeholders who use or protect water resources and their ecosystems. (…) There is enough water for everybody in the world, but only if we change the way we manage it. The responsibility to act is ours – for the benefit of the present and future generations…we need new coalitions” (from the outcome documents of the Bonn Freshwater Conference).

1. Framework for the IC process
The IC process is designed to facilitate joint stakeholder action in order to contribute to the implementation of recent international agreements, such as: The Hague Ministerial Declaration at 2nd World Water Forum; the Millennium Summit Targets; the Bonn International Conference on Freshwater, the CSD-8 decision, and Chapter 18 of Agenda 21.
Each possible stakeholder action plan should be examined for its potential to contribute to poverty eradication; social inclusion and empowerment; good governance; and gender equity.
The work on freshwater should take advantage of the media attention it can generate. Linkages to energy issues, health issues, food security, and corporate / stakeholder citizenship should be developed.
The IC process should also aim to influence the intergovernmental process towards the Johannesburg Summit. For some focus areas, it seems most effective to take a two-pronged approach, aiming to impact the type 1 and type 2 Summit outcome documents so that they become mutually reinforcing. Hence, the group may choose to develop joint statements and lobbying strategies as well as develop joint implementation action.

2. History of the IC process on freshwater so far
•	First explanatory meeting held in Bonn, 5 December 2001. 
•	First IAG meeting held in New York, 29 Jan 2002. 
•	Issue Paper V1 available Jan 2002.

3. Planned activities between now and the IC event
•	Solicit individual comments on the Issue Paper
•	Hold IAG telephone conference, week March 4; discuss possible joint action (towards collaborative action plans and intergovernmental process)
* see agenda for the IAG telephone conference below the table
•	SF to produce Issue Paper V3
•	IAG dinner meeting during first week of PrepComm III (25-28 March); discuss possible joint action; start identifying IC participants
•	SF to produce Issue Paper V4
•	IAG meeting at Swiss Conference on PPPs and sustainable water management (25/26 April): IAG members will receive an invitation shortly. The idea is to have a diversity of stakeholder views represented at the conference, and to hold an IAG meeting. The conference organisers (Swiss Govt & Swiss re) also aim to bring ideas on Public-Private-Partnerships, which the conference aims to develop, into the IC process.
•	SF to produce Issue Paper V5
•	Pursue an iterative process of developing the Issue Paper; identifying interested parties and participants; and considering how possible outcomes could be financed
Time constraints of IAG members may restrict the number and length of pre-meetings. Extended telephone conferences or virtual meetings might be preferable. One option is to use the 3rd World Water Council's "dialogue space" on their website for IAG discussions and for soliciting comments from a wider audience.

4. Possible focus areas and possible joint stakeholder action

Possible Focus Areas *
as identified in international agreements

Questions:
•	Which of the following focus areas are priorities?
•	Which are missing?	Possible Joint Action Towards Governments and Official Johannesburg Process
(Type 1)
Questions:
•	Are there specific agreements / commitments / targets that should be included in the intergovernmental agreements at the Johannesburg Summit?
•	Who should do what to achieve such inclusions?	Possible Joint Stakeholder Action Towards Implementation
(Type 2)
Questions:
•	Which of these ideas should be developed further into IC outcomes?
•	Which programmes & experiences should be brought into the IC to broaden their scope and impact?
•	Who else should be included to achieve tangible outcomes?	
Equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water
•	Halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water (Millennium Target)
•	Meet the water security needs of the poor – for livelihoods, health and welfare, production and food security and reducing vulnerability to disasters. Pro-poor water policies focus on listening to the poor about their priority water security needs.
•	Sectoral themes such as water need to be harmonised with, and possibly integrated into, national strategies for poverty reduction such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers PSRPs), which are themselves multi-stakeholder processes 

Provide safe and sufficient sanitation
•	To halve, by 2015 the present proportion of people without effective and hygienic sanitation (Bonn Rec.)	
•	Reaffirm the recommendations of the Bonn Conference on priority actions in the area of mobilising financial resources
•	Reaffirm that water resources development should be based on optimal solutions for all users within catchment basins, including protecting water rights, providing sufficient amounts of water for domestic and other uses; recognizing the needs and special circumstances of Indigenous Peoples and the poor

•	Lobby for the sanitation target to be adopted by the Johannesburg Summit 	•	Identify strategies and existing programmes and projects for access to clean water and sanitation (good practices; lessons learned)
•	Involve small and medium sized businesses in developing countries; create partnerships and generate support for their actions to provide water & sanitation, particularly in rural areas
•	Look at mechanisms of affordability and promote appropriate systems (eg tiered systems: public/private)
•	Stakeholder to conduct joint reviews of water strategies at national level in developing countries
•	Examine balance of available resources in watershed management (conflicting needs between rural and urban users)
•	Review stakeholder participation in national strategies for poverty reduction and/or PSRPs as they relate to water issues, assess lessons learnt, and develop strategies for improvement where necessary
•	Identify opportunities for broadening the scope and impact of good practices through stakeholder partnerships
•	look at lessons learnt and means of implementation (infrastructure, capacity-building, technical skills, finance); e.g. BOT (build - operate - transfer)

	
Integrated water resource management for protecting ecosystems and sustainable water resources
•	Stopping the unsustainable exploitation of water resources by developing integrated water management strategies (Millennium Target)
•	Preventing pollution	

•	Call on governments to work with each other and with all stakeholders to develop and implement integrated water management strategies
•	Support research efforts and refer to suitable international agencies
•	Comprehensive monitoring programmes and data bases on the various uses of water in major catchment basis, in order to achieve demand-based, multi-stakeholder water management strategies	

•	Capacity building regarding legislation and enforcement; working with UNEP Regional Centres
•	Global Water Partnership: aim to transfer the GWP Toolkit for regional level to national level
•	Design and conduct further research into non-conventional uses of water, such as wastewater, brackish and saline water, including cost effective desalination and water harvesting
•	Develop recommendations on the design of such programmes and data bases	
Risk Management
•	Desertification 
•	Drought planning
•	Flood planning
•	Climate Change		•	Identify, review and promote good practice in community-level stakeholder action to prevent flooding
•	Promote rainwater harvesting systems
•	look at existing approaches for efficient use of rainwater harvesting (e.g. historical irrigation practices)
•	Develop with individual local authorities early warning systems and disaster preparedness and management systems
•	Identify how to support UNEP's capacity, e.g "Early Warning Assessment" (identify areas of risk)	
Valuing Water
Ongoing discussions about water pricing vis-à-vis cultural and spiritual meanings of water	link up with Human Rights Commission (Convention on Rights of the Child refers to Right to Water)		
Private sector engagement in water supply and sanitation
Ongoing discussions about the actual scope and the actual impacts of private sector engagement		•	Design and conduct a multi-stakeholder review of the social, economic, and environmental impacts of privatisation in the water sector
•	Link to existing initiatives (e.g Tearfund's questionnaire on responsible business in the water sector; WaterAid's Assessment of approaches in public/private management; analysis by TU)	
Governance

	•	Disseminate joint statements / proposed agreements on governance in the water sector at upcoming PrepComms; make statements; hold side events; pursue an effective lobbying strategy (who to talk to which governments / Bureau members )
•	Recognise that the Ministerial Declaration of The Hague, the World Commission on Dams, and the Bonn Conference process have demonstrated that people and governments of different and sometimes opposing views can converge n constructive alternatives and form new partnerships on water resources management that go beyond sectoral approaches
•	Reaffirm the recommendations of the Bonn Conference on priority actions in the area of governance; including that participatory approaches to water resource management should be strengthened

•	Reference to Codes of Conduct (and their monitoring) in the water sector, particularly those developed and adopted by a variety of stakeholders

•	General Assembly to establish a process to globalise the Aarhus Convention
	•	Develop a multi-stakeholder statement / campaign on good governance, transparency and accountability in the water sector (towards Summit process & beyond)
•	Create linkages with the 'C41' process on national governance (WRI / IUCN / USCIB)
•	National multi-stakeholder councils to develop water management strategies (this might include advising on the regulatory framework)
•	Local multi-stakeholder councils to develop water management strategies (which might include collaborative management mechanisms on access, price, and delivery of water & sanitation (e.g. pilot communities?))

•	Develop and monitor a Code of Conduct for public and private delivery of water & sanitation
•	Address corruption - ?
•	Set up joint information centres providing data on water quality for citizens, based on existing experience with such services (eg Eco-Telephone in the Ukraine); establish links with The Access Initiatives (WRI et al)
•	look at the feasibility of the Aarhus Convention by focusing on water as one element (e.g focus on water policy, collection of data etc. in 1-2 countries)	

Water for Food
•	Securing water for food production
•	Irrigated agriculture offers large potential in terms of water savings, the benefits of which can be shared with other sectors.
•	Water-rich food should not be produced in water scarce areas (e.g. strawberries in the Middle East)	

•	Review agricultural production and exports and its impacts on water resources	

•	Develop with supermarket chains water maps of food production & develop appropriate alternatives to ensure that people in water scarce areas grow crops with low water requirements or of high value compared to the water used.
•	create links with existing scoping exercises of decentralised freshwater management (e.g. WELL, info will be provided)	
Water and Health
			
Large infra-structure projects	•	Adopt a reference to the World Dams Commission recommendations and the need for national governments to review and incorporate them in national legislation	•	Promote the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams
•	look at alternatives to major dams (micro-dams), possibly in cooperation with former WCD)
	
Capacity-building, training and education	•	Reaffirm the recommendations of the Bonn Conference on priority actions in the areas of capacity building and sharing knowledge such as monitoring, assessment and management of water resources
•	Make available sufficient resources for capacity-building, training and education
•	Support electronic and non-electronic knowledge banks and other tools for knowledge exchange and management (eg via UNEP's Freshwater Portal)
•	Include local communities, local authorities, trade unions, and women's groups in the development of capacity-building tools
	•	Capacity-building for local authorities to enable them to set up water management systems, particularly in Africa
•	Developing and linking knowledge banks, including indigenous technologies such as rainwater harvesting, e.g. Intermediate Development Technology Group (ITDG) on training, capacity-building; IRC's STREAM project (global database on water projects); 
•	Work with an international agency to set up an information and technology bank for effective water and sanitation management as well as public information and community education materials; possibly including existing distance learning programmes; eg linked with UNEPs Freshwater Portal and UNESCO's World Water Assessment report
•	Develop community-based indicator programmes to feed into the World Water Assessment Report. Data should be disaggregated by gender.
•	Train water experts and policy makers to work in a gender-inclusive manner.
•	Develop empowerment measures for women to take up leadership and managerial roles in water resources policies and management.
•	Expand existing local authorities twinning programmes to include all appropriate stakeholders and enable transfer of stakeholder capacities in the water and sanitation sector	
Household consumption patterns		•	Develop multi-media campaigns on water related issues; eg design and run awareness raising campaigns related to the International Year of Freshwater (2003)
•	empower people at local level to set up water user associations
•	Share and replicate successful public education tools between countries and communities, eg via water suppliers and local authorities	

* Focus areas that bear potential for effective joint stakeholder action should be included.

AGENDA FOR TELEPHONE CONFERENCE (06/05 or 15/05, 1pm GMT; tbc)
•	Discuss questions set at the top of the table, page 2
•	Discuss Swiss Conference on PPPs and sustainable water management (25/26 April)
•	Suggested further process; plans around PrepCom 3
•	IAG composition