Cities can show the way to sustainable, efficient and equitable management of water resources

Published on: 17/03/2011

Achieving sustainable development requires that we institutionalise and act upon lessons learned in the arena of urban water management and city development.

Holistic approaches, methods and skills are needed to enable successful cooperation and collaboration, including communication techniques which enable stakeholders to exchange knowledge, views and preferences so as to build a collective, feasible vision of the future and an effective programme of implementation.

• To make the case for stakeholder engagement we have to show outcomes such as reduced pollution or new policies. One group argued that sustainability is more likely from good stakeholder engagement.
• Contexts are very different. Stakeholder engagement is more alien and difficult in some places than others.
• Stakeholder engagement processes always have their objectives (it is done for a reason), and this is one reason why processes all look very different.
• Many transferable lessons were identified, including the need for intensive facilitation, a common baseline of information, involving stakeholders in action research and creating the right incentives.

Specific outcomes of the meeting – especially case studies – will be presented on World Water Day on 22 March 2011.

A selection of SWITCH cities’ stories of change are available at: www.irc.nl/page/61309 

See the official conference website at: www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/swm_cities_zaragoza_2010/index.shtml

The daily newsletter with interviews of participants and reports from the sessions is available at:  http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/swm_cities_zaragoza_2010/daily_newsletter.shtml

Petra Brussee