March 2013: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) Water Governance Facility (WGF) has published a paper, titled “Governing and Managing Water Resources for Sustainable Development,” which summarizes five key messages and key follow-up issues from the online consultation on “Governing and Managing Water Resources,” which took place on the World We Want 2015 Website in February 2013.
Participants said future Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on water resources should be “few, distinct and measurable” and suggested developing goals and targets around two key topics: water for environmental protection and socioeconomic development; and an integrated water resources management (IWRM) approach. Participants noted more work is needed to develop indicators as well as monitoring and reporting systems.
On other key issues, the consultation highlighted the importance of governance for improving water resources management while noting different governance situations and opposing blueprint approaches. It recognized continued challenges related to IWRM and limited capacity on water governance, and recommended improved coordination across ministries and sectors.
On follow up, the paper proposes identifying two to three priority measures to improve governance. It also recommends, inter alia: assessing capacity needs related to water governance and management; and providing consultation outcomes to relevant processes.
The paper also provides traffic analytics, noting that 1,144 unique visitors visited the consultation webpage. Views varied by region, with 49% of views from donor countries. Among non-donors countries, the Middle East and South Asia represented the highest percentage of views at 15%, while Eastern Europe and Central Asia were the lowest at 4%.
Water Resources Management is one of three sub-thematic consultations that took place as part of the Global Thematic Consultation on Water. UNDP and the Swedish Agency for International Development Cooperation (Sida) launched the WGF at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) to implement UNDP’s Water and Ocean Governance Progamme. [Publication: Governing and Managing Water Resources for Sustainable Development] [Consultation on Water Resources Management]