Water cooperation in cities

Water cooperation in citiesBy John Butterworth, Marieke Adank and Carmen Da Silva Wells, IRCInternational Water and Sanitation Centre, the Hague, the Netherlands

The urban water challenge • Growing urban population • High demands for better services and pressures on scarce resources • Complex institutional setting Urban water management: a “wicked” problem2

„Wicked‟ problems • Unique and dynamic. Solutions cannot be simply replicated. • Perfect solutions do not exist – rather more or less suitable options • Can never be completely solved, only improved. And can continue to be improved. • Solutions require collaboration between multiple stakeholders3

SWITCH Project - Five year experiment (2006-11) - Funded by the European Union - Activities: demand-led Sustainable research, demonstration activities, training, and multi- Water management stakeholder learning Birmingham Hamburg Lodz Improves Tomorrow‟s Zaragoza Beijing Cities‟ Bogota Health Cali Accra Tel Aviv Lima Alexandria Belo Horizonte4

Learning alliances in SWITCH Project5

Multilateral orgs. Global level Donors Advocacy orgs. Learning orgs What is a learning alliance? Donors INGOs National level Multiple stakeholders at key institutional levels National Government Line ministries Banks Universities Companies Offices of line ministries Sewerage department Local government City level Local NGOs Local Banks Donor projects Water company Local private sector Men/Women Community / end-user level Domestic Rich/poor Productive6

Donors Multilateral orgs. Global platform Advocacy orgs. Learning orgsImproving horizontal Donors INGOs National Government National platform Line ministries Banks Universities Companies and vertical cooperation Broughtline ministries into platforms Offices of together Sewerage department Local government City platform Local NGOs Local Banks Donor projects facilitated by an LA Water company Local private sector Men/Women facilitator Domestic Rich/poor Community / local platforms Productive7

Tools used by city learning alliances • Stakeholder analysis • Rapid urban water assessment • Facilitating communication in learning alliances • Visioning and scenario-based strategic planning • Process documentation • Action research • Monitoring • Creative workshop facilitation8

Facilitating communication in learning alliances multiple sources of information, experience and multiple users for it -> potential for new insights Diversity of stakeholders and joint learning. involved in Learning Alliances Diverse values, interests, language and world views; possible conflicting interests Careful facilitation is needed to ensure effective communication. Communication in the city learning alliances typically involves: • workshops with alliance • e-discussions, members, • social events, • bilateral meetings, • reaching out to stakeholders • working groups, outside the alliance through • field visits, events and information products and services.9

Facilitating communication in learning alliances Basic principles for effective communication in learning alliances: • It is interactive • It follows short cycles • It is inclusive • It is targeted Role of the learning alliance facilitator is central!10

Visioning and scenario-based strategic planning11

Visioning and scenario-based strategic planning in SWITCH city LAs • Almost all City Learning Alliances developed shared vision, • Several developed scenario-based strategic plans • It gave city learning alliances coherence and purpose, bringing stakeholders together around a joint activity. • Strategic planning processes built on existing processes • It helped cities to broaden their focus and to take on emerging key issues • The process was considered relatively non-threatening, new and innovative to the individuals involved • Strategic planning processes take time, resources and need to be well facilitated12

Process documentation • Tracks what happened, how it happened and why it happened • It provides insights into the course and outcomes of an intervention. • It triggers reflection and debate • The main elements are: – Capturing the change process, – Organising the information, – Analysing information, – Disseminating the information quickly enough to be most useful.14

Process documentation by city learning alliances • Learning alliance facilitators trained in process documentation: – Regular documentation of activities and events – Making this available in print and through the city websites • City project teams with support from „outsiders‟: – Structured reflection twice during the project (in 2008 and 2010) • Useful for helping city stakeholders and the SWITCH teams to take a step back, reflect on changes in their city and decide on the way forward.15

Lessons learnt • It better to „go with the flow‟ and put support behind things that are already happening than to start projects from scratch. • It takes a long time to bring stakeholders who are not already working together into an effective learning alliance platform. • Learning alliance processes require dedicated facilitation that must be funded. • Treat the existing structures with respect and work to gain credibility. • In order to get people to participate in the meetings and ongoing activities of the platform, you have to make it worthwhile for them to contribute their time and energy. • Five years pass quickly….. Change processes take more than the conventional 3-5-year project timespan16

For more tools and city stories, please download “SWITCH and the City” from http://www.irc.nl/page/6239618

Water cooperation in cities

by United Nations Office to Support the International Decade for Action 'Water for Life' 2005-2015 on Jan 25, 2013

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Water cooperation in cities Presentation Transcript