Mutual trust and understanding the real needs of communities are key to achieving water cooperation
Mutual trust and understanding the real needs of communities have been emphasised as key factors for successful water cooperation by the participants of the International UN-Water Conference on water cooperation which took place from 8 to 10 January in Zaragoza, Spain. President Alice Bouman-Dentener participated on behalf of the Women for Water Partnership and presented the case of the Ayeyarwaddy River Basin in Myanmar where inclusive water governance with the participation of Women and Youth as key stakeholders is pursued.
“Achieving water cooperation is the result of a long term process which requires time, patience and mutual trust” summarized Josefina Maestu, director of the UN Office to support the International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’ 2005-2015 when closing the Conference. The conference gave outstanding examples of political will, legal frameworks, accountability and institutional structures as a solid foundation for water cooperation. At the same time it was demonstrated how lack of meaningful involvement of the local population caused potentially viable solutions to fail. Women for Water partnership stressed the importance of early civil society involvement and illustrated how women's organisations have shaped IWRM processes, made projects more sustainable, avoided poor investment and expensive mistakes and through their connect with the community, contributed to yielding maximum social and economic return oninvestment. The IWRM consortium of Myanmar (Ayeyarwaddy RIver Basin Research Organisation - ARBRO, Water Research and Training Centre - WRTC, Institute for Civil Earth and Water Engineering -ICEWE) acknowledges the added value of including civil society as intrinsic part of the institutional structure for IWRM.
Link results International Annual UN-Water Zaragoza Conference 2012/2013.
Interview with Alice Bouman, President of Women for Water Partnership:
Mutual trust and understanding the real needs of communities have been emphasised as key factors for successful water cooperation by the participants of the International UN-Water Conference on water cooperation which took place from 8 to 10 January in Zaragoza, Spain. President Alice Bouman-Dentener participated on behalf of the Women for Water Partnership and presented the case of the Ayeyarwaddy River Basin in Myanmar where inclusive water governance with the participation of Women and Youth as key stakeholders is pursued.
“Achieving water cooperation is the result of a long term process which requires time, patience and mutual trust” summarized Josefina Maestu, director of the UN Office to support the International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’ 2005-2015 when closing the Conference. The conference gave outstanding examples of political will, legal frameworks, accountability and institutional structures as a solid foundation for water cooperation. At the same time it was demonstrated how lack of meaningful involvement of the local population caused potentially viable solutions to fail. Women for Water partnership stressed the importance of early civil society involvement and illustrated how women's organisations have shaped IWRM processes, made projects more sustainable, avoided poor investment and expensive mistakes and through their connect with the community, contributed to yielding maximum social and economic return oninvestment. The IWRM consortium of Myanmar (Ayeyarwaddy RIver Basin Research Organisation - ARBRO, Water Research and Training Centre - WRTC, Institute for Civil Earth and Water Engineering -ICEWE) acknowledges the added value of including civil society as intrinsic part of the institutional structure for IWRM.
Link results International Annual UN-Water Zaragoza Conference 2012/2013.
Interview with Alice Bouman, President of Women for Water Partnership:
