UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is in collaboration with Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) launching a new program – The UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI (WGF) - to support developing countries to improve water governance.
The UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI will seek integrated water development solutions for poverty alleviation and addresses the social, economic and environmental aspects of water challenges. It will promote South-South collaboration and exchange of experiences and best practices, through for example multi-stakeholder dialogues, and will take an integrated approach to water resources management through improved governance solutions. The Facility is focusing on multiple thematic areas that range from integrated water resources management, transboundary water and water supply and sanitation to climate variability, gender and capacity building.
Website and Feedback
The UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI is operational. However, we encourage feedback on how to best serve those needing information or assistance related to water governance. That feedback will also be used to revamp and launch a comprehensive, stand-alone WGF web site in the fall of 2005. Your thoughts are welcome; please fill out our short survey by clicking here.
Purpose of Water governance
Water governance is fundamental to the achievement of all the MDGs. Prudent water management is crucial for reaching national development objectives and for improving the livelihoods of poor people. It is also a vital component of actions to improve environmental sustainability, by maintaining the integrity of ecosystems, and by bringing together stakeholders around a key resource that could either unite or divide societies.
The UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI will provide strategic support to achieve
- Improved water governance to advance socially equitable, environmentally sustainable and economically efficient management of water resources, including water and sanitation services
- Implementation of IWRM at local, national, and regional levels
- MDG and WSSD targets for water supply and sanitation
Who will benefit from this initiative?
The facility will benefit water governance related work of governments, civil society and other stakeholders in developing countries.
What are the main services provided by the Facility?
- Providing policy support and advice on water governance to developing countries to meet demands at local, national and river basin levels.
- Applying and dissemination good practices from local to country and river basin levels to enhance water governance work.
- Advocating effective water governance as a requirement to reach the water related MDG and WSSD water and sanitation targets.
- Participating in the work of the World Water Assessment Program and contributing on water governance issues to the World Water Development Report.
How will the Facility work?
The UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI will provide services on the basis of requests from developing countries for policy and institutional support to address the array of water governance issues. It will work through existing UNDP organizational networks, whereby developing country demand will be expressed to UNDP and SIWI. the Facility will also seek to be complementary to ongoing interventions, and to facilitate leverage of additional in-country funding.
The program is jointly funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and UNDP. The program will be housed and implemented in collaboration with SIWI.
What is Water Governance?
Increasing water scarcity, water services shortfalls and escalating pollution are socially and politically induced challenges. The water crisis is increasingly about how we, as individuals, and as parts of a collective society, govern the access to and control over water resources and their benefits. Poor people are disproportionately at disadvantage to have secure access to safe potable water and basic sanitation as well as water for productive uses in agriculture and other economic sectors.
UNDP defines water governance as the range of political, social, economic and administrative systems that are in place to develop and manage water resources and the delivery of water services, at different levels of society.
Water Governance addresses, among other things:
- The formulation and adoption of sustainable legislation, policies and institutions
- The way legislation, institutions and policies are being established, enforced and implemented
- Clarification of the roles and responsibilities of all involved stakeholders - local and national government, private sector, civil society - regarding ownership, administration and management of water resources
