Strategy Paper
THE PROBLEM - Lack of Capacity
Water Sector Reform
Capacity Building
LESSON 1: Local ownership can be strengthened
LESSON 2: Partnerships can overcome capacity constraints.
LESSON 3: Motivation from demand
THE PROBLEM - Lack of Capacity
(The full text of this paper can be down loaded fron the References section of the Database).
Capacity constraints are a severe limitation to development that extends across most, if not all, development sectors. Major international goals of poverty reduction, improvement in access to safe water supply and sanitation, reduction in child mortality and achievement of sustainable development are dependent upon the capacity of countries, their institutions and their people.
There are many aspects affecting the success of capacity building programmes and it is not as simplistic as only improving training and education. The problem is less a lack of financial resources than perverse incentives created by co-operating partners, poor conditions of service, factors encouraging brain drain and dependence on technical assistance. However many lessons have been learned during the past decade and there are new opportunities for capacity development to be addressed in a more sustainable manner and with greater impact.
Advances in communication have transformed our abilities to learn, opening up great new opportunities for some but increasing the knowledge gap for others. Experience slowly emerging from years of development interventions show that capacity building has to be anchored, owned and managed at country or community level. Combining new opportunities and experience we are now better placed to have the sustained capacity building impact necessary to support sustainable growth and poverty alleviation.
Water Sector Reform
Water is a key resource for sustainable development and poverty reduction and improved water resources management is a major step toward achieving a more equitable, prosperous world. Water plays a vital role in relation to human health, livelihood, economic growth as well as sustaining ecosystems.
Widespread recognition of the need for water sector reform to embrace the principles of integrated water resources management has resulted in restructured water laws and institutions in many countries. Others are still in the process of adaptation to meet the challenges of sustainable management of limited water resources. Capacity building support must be provided to institutions and individuals taking on new roles and to improve awareness and knowledge.
Capacity Building
Capacity building is a continuous process reflecting society’s need to respond to new ideas and technologies and changing social and political realities. Water sector capacity building supports the process of transformation for the implementation of integrated water resources management, including water policies and legislation, institutional development and human resources development.
The complexity of the integrated approach to water resources management requires that capacity building must address holistically a wide range of issues, problems and opportunities across sectors. There is no one correct solution which again emphasises the importance of local control and local solutions backed by local adaptation of internationally accepted knowledge and principles.
Increasingly it is accepted that capacity building programmes are more successful and are more likely to be sustainable when they respond to an internal initiative and when they are approached through a process approach and not as single one time events.
LESSON 1: Local ownership can be strengthened
Lessons from past experience identify three major areas where strategic changes may make a significant improvement towards the successful development of capacity in the water sector.
In a forthright review of technical co-operation UNDP recognises the central role of local capacity which should be used as a starting point, not ignored as in the past. As countries transform they build on the present, they do not start from zero, skills are extended knowledge grows and new opportunities are created to use those skills.
The last decade has seen much progress in promoting local control but development co-operation continues to bypass or undermine existing capacity by controlling the process and priorities for delivering capacity building.
Local ownership has been poorly defined in the context of capacity building. Local ownership of the capacity building process must be anchored in the local capacity building institutions for sustained delivery of capacity building services. New focus must be given to these institutions, strengthening over time their responsiveness to local needs and demands, and addressing their own capacity constraints.
Cap-Net promotes the use of local institutions to plan and manage the delivery of capacity building services. Cap-Net works with international partners to improve local access to training materials, information and tools for integrated water resources management.
LESSON 2: Partnerships can overcome capacity constraints.
New technology is creating an exponential growth in tools for capacity building and ways to access knowledge. Information can now be summoned from a wide variety of sources and in a multiplicity of forms. Linkages between people and institutions across the world can now take place horizontally and directly without passing through formal channels. These networks have become powerful tools of capacity development for individuals and institutions around the world, in developed as well as developing countries.
Current management concepts for water resources promote the partnership approach. Bringing together multiple disciplines, drawing in society to decision making processes, addressing financial, social and equity issues not only crosses traditional technical boundaries but demands new mixtures of skills.
Partnerships amongst capacity building institutions are emerging as an effective strategy to share experience and skills and reach the critical mass of expertise required to address the demanding requirements of reform towards sustainable management of water resources.
Cap-Net is working with many networks of regional and national capacity building institutions. These partnerships provide the vehicle for a coordinated approach to the scaling up of capacity building support for sustainable management of water resources.
LESSON 3: Motivation from demand
In the water sector where reforms towards sustainable management of water resources have created huge capacity building demands, capacity building institutions are slow to respond. In addition to the long term requirements in terms of graduates and skilled personnel much greater attention has to be given to the immediate capacity needs of government and civil society to support policy, legal and institutional reforms. In this respect those institutions charged with capacity building should be motivated to identify these demands and gearing to address them.
Capacity building service providers must be encouraged to adopt a more demand driven approach, identifying the immediate needs and demands of society and responding to those. The lack of this identification and response, engagement with the implementing agency, leads to perceived inability to deliver and a lack of confidence in local capacity building institutions.
Cap-Net is promoting demand assessment tools and techniques with capacity building institutions and networks. Linkage with Regional Water Partnerships and implementing agencies are vital to ensure relevance of capacity building and, therefore, impact.
