IWRM ToolBox:evolution and resources

Danka J. Thalmeinerova

GWP IS A KNOWLEDGE BASED ORGANIZATION

Four Strategic Goals 2009-2013

• Promote water as a key part of sustainable national development [operational]

• Address critical development challenges [advocacy]

• Reinforce knowledge sharing and communication [knowledge]

• Build a more effective network [partnering]

...from Information management to Knowledge management

Providing some guidance

• The GWP handbook

– Purpose: To provide countries with the tools and knowledge they need to act on the WSSD action target in the way that is most useful for them.

IWRM definition

IWRM is a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital

ecosystems.

GWP, TEC Background Paper No. 4: Integrated Water Resources

Management

....from that time, many IWRM knowledge produced by many.....

Lessons learnt - captured in GWP publications

Other types of GWP Knowledge sharing products

Technical Focus Papers•Water Demand Management - The Mediterranean Experience•The role of Decision Support Systems and Models in Integrated River Basin Management•Water and food security – the governance challenge: Experiences in India and China (in print)

Perspectives Papers

•Groundwater Resources and Irrigated Agriculture

•Water in the Green Economy

•Increasing Water Security – A Development Imperative

Proceedings from regional workshops

•Water and Food Security (CAM)

•Integrated Drought Management (CEE)

•Integrated Urban Water Management (SEA) – in print

Why has IWRM been popular

• Achieving MDGs

Addressing recurrent water-related problem hampering national development—such as reducing vulnerability to droughts and floods

Why has IWRM been popular• Remedying unsustainable situations and mitigating environmental costs

of past policies.

Sharing transboundary water resources

Progress (reported to Johannesburg, Rio Summits)

• Some countries have made good progress towards meeting the target.

• But many more need to accelerate their efforts.

Good progress

Some progress

Just beginning.

Why has progress not been greater?

Uncertainty over:– What IWRM means and how it contributes to

sustainable social and economic development – What an IWRM strategy is and its role in water

reform– How to go about developing a strategy

New challenge: Climate Change

Is IWRM a last year fashion?

Not just about physical resources

IWRM is not just about more efficient management of physical resources (land, water, forests, fisheries, livestock)…

…it is also about reforming human systems to enable people—women as well as men—to reap sustainable and equitable benefits from those resources.

The basics of integration

When putting IWRM into practice it is important to think about where and to what degree coordination and new management instruments are necessary.

Link to other strategies and plans• An IWRM strategy should link to relevant national and

regional plans and strategies.

Examples:

– National strategies to meet Millennium Development Goals

– Country poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs)

– National Five Year Plans or Sustainable Development Strategies

– National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans

– National Plans to Combat Desertification

– National Plans on women’s development and empowerment

Integrated Water Resources Management is

• an empirical concept which is built up from the on-the-ground experience of practitioners,

• a flexible approach to water management that can adapt to diverse national and local contexts,

• thus it is not a scientific theory that needs to be proved or disproved by scholars.

Objective of the IWRM approach is not water management as such but human development.

IWRM approach can only work if it does not focus exclusively on water.

• How to convince ministries that Information and Knowledge bring benefits?

How can this all be translated into education curricula?

Challenge in GWP

Picture from V.Pangare: Global Perspectives on IWRM, 2006

Three pillars IWRM: of Areas of Change

IWRM ToolBox launched in 2000 (WWF Hague)- online portal for IWRM

ToolBox products

•  

Examples of Knowledge Products

These products assist to create Political Commitment (by appearing at the desk of policy makers) and are used for Capacity Building Programmes

Activities in SAF

• Project: Unpacking the IWRM ToolBox using the Lower Manyame IWRM Demonstration Project– Lessons learned in developing

IWRM Plan– Discussion how each tool is

applied in the IWRM plan– Publication disseminated to

other basins

• ToolBox training for WaterNet students– Regular training for MSc IWRM

students

Application of GWP ToolBox in national water planning

• ToolBox used in Eritrea, Malawi, Ethiopia and Zambia (PAWD initiative)

– as a reference source to improve water governance

– as a framework for analysis of the water resources situation

Inter-regional cooperation of CEE and CACENA

• Training manual for Water practitioners in Mekong River Basin

– Using ToolBox structure and materials

Example: Armenia training of University lectureres

• to encourage professors of universities to develop IWRM curricula

GWP ToolBox on-line IWRM library

59 tools

Tools in ToolBox

Short description & external link

REFERENCES

CASE STUDY

How do cases fit in?

Full

case study

(8 pages)

One page

abstracts

Quality Assurance !

Tool Supported by Cases

Case studies in 2012: 26 case studies uploaded

Developed by GWP partners:10

Statistics

Statistics

Distribution of visits per country

Vision and goal

• Vision:• ToolBox will be an internet based repository of all GWP knowledge

on IWRM and the first choice site for water practitioners, decision makers and partners

• Goal:• ToolBox will contribute to establishing a global communication

platform to share knowledge and develop capacity

www.gwptoolbox.org

www.gwp.org

Does the homepage of your website have a prominent link to the ToolBox?