WIN Seminar: Partnerships for Water and Environmental Sanitation: Integrity, Accountability and Transparency

WIN Seminar: Partnerships for Water and Environmental Sanitation: Integrity, Accountability and Transparency

A seminar organised by the Water Integrity Network at the Stockholm World Water Week 2009

Executive Summary: The Water Integrity Network (WIN) organized a seminar on 16 August at the Stockholm International Water Week 2009 in cooperation with the Global Water Partnership (GWP), Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI (WGF) and International Water Association (IWA).
The seminar aimed at highlighting the importance of building partnerships across different water sub-sectors, countries and governance levels (from local to global) to promote water integrity. More than 80 participants gained deeper insights on WIN-supported emerging and already successful partnerships and their initiatives for transparency, accountability and integrity in the sector. The initiatives ranged from Water Integrity Studies in Uganda (WIN & WSP-Uganda) to Capacity-Building in South Africa (CAP-NET), as well as Networking Efforts for Water and Sanitation in Honduras (RAS-HON). The presentations were followed by a stimulating and lively panel discussion with Ms. Kusum Athukorala (Sri Lanka Water Partnership), Dr. John Butterworth (IRC), Mr Pireh Otieno, (UN-HABITAT), Mr. Martin Rivera (RAS-HON), Dr. Darren Saywell (IWA) and Ms. Noma Neseni, (WSSCC Zimbabwe). The panellists emphasised that in the process of creating successful partnerships for water integrity it is important to listen to the people; respecting the equality principle; using the media; building capacity; using information technologies; and encouraging each other to widen ones perspective and insights. Subsequently, audience and panellists joined up in working groups and concretely discussed the following issues:

• Emerging Partnerships for Country Based Water Integrity Action Programmes;
• Transparency and Integrity in Transboundary Waters;
• Effective Involvement of Local Governments in Water Integrity Partnerships;
• Water Sector Corruption and Climate Change.

The outcomes of these discussions can be found in the more detailed report below. The seminar was closed by Dr. Ania Grobicki, the Executive Secretary of the Global Water partnership, who strongly endorsed WIN’s partnership with GWP.

a. Three Years of WIN: WINs Strategic Framework for Action 2009-2015 (Dr. Håkan Tropp, WIN Chair & and Director of the UNDP Water Governance Facility)

WIN Chair Dr. Hakan Tropp (Director of the UNDP-Water Governance Facility) reiterated the importance of building partnerships to promote integrity in the water sector. Based upon the realisation that no one in the sector can tackle corruption alone, this systematic and often enigmatic problem can only be addressed through a joint effort that runs across all sectors and types of organisations. This is why partnerships and coalition building are crucial for fighting corruption to reach the Millennium Development Goals.
WIN Achievements
The Water Integrity Network is a global coalition that advocates for change by building pro-poor partnerships for integrity in the water sector. In recent years, WIN has been successful in raising the profile of water integrity and anti-corruption and placed the issue more firmly on the global water governance agenda. The next challenge for WIN is to work effectively at the country level in cooperation with partners and members. Its main objective is to encourage and support existing organisations and individuals to include water integrity in their daily work, rather than reinventing the wheel by forming ‘just another network’. This requires building bridges within and beyond the sector and especially reaches out to fruitful learning partnerships with the governance and anti-corruption movements, such as Transparency International as well as other international and local water organisations.

More Information: (link to presentation).
Contact: Hakan Tropp (hakan.tropp@siwi.org)
Websites: www.waterintegritynetwork.net, www.watergovernance.org

b. Uganda: Status of Water Integrity Studies (Dr. Donal O’Leary, Transparency International & Ms. Maria Jacobsson, Water and Sanitation Program – Uganda)

This presentation introduced a pilot study on water integrity in Uganda. The Water Integrity Studies were launched jointly by the Water and Sanitation Program-Uganda (WSP-Uganda) and WIN. Based on a qualitative approach (interviews and desk-studies), these studies assess the risks and opportunities for corruption to occur in the in water and sanitation sector in Uganda.
More Information:

Contact: Donal O’Leary (doleary@transparency.org)
Websites: www.wsp-uganda.org, www.waterintegritynetwork.net

c. Promoting Integrity and Accountability in Water: Experiences from a Pilot Training Workshop in South Africa. (Mr. Kees Leendertse, Cap-Net, South Africa)

Under the leadership of Cap-Net and based on an open, inclusive and informal collaborative partnership with UNDP Water Governance Facility, Water-Net, WIN and IRC, these organisations are in the process of developing a new water integrity training manual for water sector professionals. The manual offers tools and instruments that can help to avoid corruption and is inspired by already existing good practices in the sector. All materials have been developed with the intention to be flexible enough to be adopted in diverse local situations.

More Information:

Contact: Kees Leendertse (kees.leendertse@cap-net.org')
Websites: www.cap-net.org, www.watergovernance.org, www.water-net.org, www.irc.nl, www.waterintegritynetwork.net

d. Panel Debate with WIN members and Partners: Efforts, Results and Next Steps: Paving the Way for Water Integrity Action

Moderator: Dr. Grit Martinez, WIN, Germany
Panellists: Ms. Kusum Athukorala, Sri Lanka Water Partnership, Sri Lanka; Dr. John Butterworth, IRC, The Netherlands; Mr. Pireh Otieno, Water and Sanitation Section II, UN-HABITAT, Kenya; Mr. Martin Rivera, RAS-HON, Honduras; Dr. Darren Saywell, IWA, The Netherlands; Ms. Noma Neseni, Institute of Water and Sanitation Development and WSSCC National Coordinator for Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe.
This lively debate between WIN members and partners tackled the very practical question of how to build successful partnerships and what are the challenges to be faced as well as the skills needed.

Listening to the people
Noma Neseni from Zimbabwe reported from her experiences as national coordinator for WSSCC and the Institute of Water and Sanitation Development. When launching a new WASH campaign, it quickly became clear that citizens demanded accountability from their respective municipalities as central part of the campaign. As a result, Noma asserted that the importance of listening to and partnering with beneficiaries should never be downplayed in the implementation of a project.
Equality principle for partnerships
Darren Saywell from IWA recounted that because of the relatively new focus on water integrity, IWA has adopted a learning approach to engage with the issue. This approach, however, is based on the principle of recognising that mutual benefit and acceptance of different perspectives is key for a successful partnership. IWA strives to work on integrity issues for the public sector such as providing guidance on procurement processes; simplification and codification of principles; and enhancing auditing practices.
Using the media to raise awareness
Kusum Athukorala described a WIN funded project by the Sri Lanka Water Partnership that focuses on riverine communities affected by illicit river sand mining. The project raised awareness by informing both citizens and the district police through brochures, booklets, posters, video clips and a documentary on the issue. However, the campaign only took off because many local groups got involved, in particular the Network of Women Professionals. This generated large media interest, which was central to forcing the government to pay closer attention to the issue. From this experience, Kusum reflected that it is important to make people interested in order to get partners together.
Building capacity to support each other
John Butterworth from IRC highlighted the importance of building capacity and exchanging expertise. Water integrity can be achieved by making existing organisations aware of the issue through training workshops and awareness raising.
Influencing each other
Martin Riveras from RAS-HON emphasised that when working with partners, it sometimes helps to think outside the box. Looking beyond the usual terrain of operation can generate new ideas and is key to scaling up the issue.
Using information technologies to ensure accountability
Pireh Otieno from UN-Habitat in Kenya recounted the positive experience made with information technology to publishing information in the public domain. This ensures accountability by supporting more effective and transparent decision making.

Comments from the audience

• The press is a crucial partner in investigating and disclosing corruption cases (see Norwegian Example, http://www.transparency.cz/pdf/prezentace_l_schanke.pdf)
• It is often difficult to assess who are the culprits in corruption cases: the producers, the managers, the regulators, or the consumers? It is the system and the individuals alike that need to change their behaviour.
• Good experiences with multi-stakeholder forums in small towns in some African countries. How can they be institutionalised so that discussions on water issues remain open to everyone?
• Petty corruption often relates to the poor levels of civil service salaries. Raising salaries can reduce corruption.

e. Outcomes of Working Groups

Group 1: Emerging Partnerships for Country Based Water Integrity Action Programmes: What are the scenarios?

• Assess the political system of a country: how is it organised and what is the process to implement anticorruption work?
• Assess the capacity of civil society and local institutions of a particular country.
• Apply a multi-stakeholder approach.
• Define the responsibilities of the different actors involved: what are the rules of the network, what are the strengths of a particular network?
• Involve the media: corruption needs to be talked about in the public through the media.
• Forge a strong coalition and bring together different water networks in various countries to jointly fight corruption.
• Address questions of sustainability: what is the lifecycle of a network?
• Does it need to live forever? When is it no longer needed?

Group 2: Transparency and Integrity in Transboundary Waters: Is there political will to limit the misuse of entrusted power for unilateral gain?

• Lack of research and evidence on the incentives and impacts of corruption in transboundary waters
• Organisation beyond the nation state creates a setting that is particularly prone to corruption.
• Misuse of power beyond political reason, e.g. interests of lobby groups.
• Multilateral setting and disconnection with institutions at the local level and lack of participation of local level institutions creates an environment that is prone to corruption.
• Need for effective mechanisms to increase transparency (improve the provision of information in transboundary settings, mechanisms to validate information, strong call for effective enforcement of international law, etc).

Group 3: Effective Involvement of Local Governments in Water Integrity Partnerships: What works?

• Decentralisation, reform and reorganisation of the water sector provides opportunities to push water integrity forward. Local government leadership in these processes is crucial.
• Public accountability is easier to apply locally than on the national level.
• Consumers and users need to be educated to create momentum for integrity.
• Focus on making information public (e.g. invite people to participate in public fora by putting up posters; user information brochures, etc).
• Local authorities with too little credibility can call upon the respectability of national level institutions to support them in public meetings.
• The user/public needs to be recognised in the legal structure of the settings in order to create a legally recognised role for consumers in the process.

Group 4: Water Sector Corruption and Climate Change: Where is the expertise and how to act?

• Debate on Climate Change is an opportunity to improve integrity.
• Anticipate the effects of climate change to avoid conflicts among different stakeholders.
• Need for more regulatory systems.
• Increase regulations to avoid conflict.
• Avoid price increases of water to shun / avoid corruption.
• More planned urbanisation.
• More regulation at the national level and more cooperation among water basins.
• Create awareness about the evolution and effects of climate change.
• Use and work with the media.
• More research required.

III. Next Steps after Stockholm

The WIN team was very pleased and positively astounded by the enthusiasm and moral support expressed towards WIN and its potential to improve water integrity via skillful partnerships. It shows that the WIN strategy to strengthen coalitions amongst participants from governments, utilities, regulators, the private sector, the donor community, civil society organisations, universities and research organisations has been a success. The participation in the Stockholm World Water Week has shown that people demand further awareness of the negative impacts of corruption in the water sector as well as the positive results of increased water integrity. The achievements of WIN and its members and partners in promoting water integrity need to be increasingly demonstrated through support and implementation on the country level. Climate change and its impact on the water sector is a pressing challenge for the water community. The role of WIN is to pursue active partnerships and encourage existing water sector organisations to include the issue of integrity in their discussions and practices.

Water Integrity Studies Presentation

TI WSP.pdf  (196 kB)

CapNet

CapNet.pdf  (1.07 MB)