Dialogue on Water, Food and Environment

The 2nd World Water Forum (The Hague) exposed the need for an action-oriented dialogue on the development of water management strategies and practices that enhance food security and environmental sustainability. Ten international agencies (FAO, GWP, ICID, IFAP, IUCN, IWMI, UNEP, WHO, WWC, WWF) have joined forces as a Consortium to 'promote a rational dialogue on future water needs for nature and food production'. The programme, which runs until 2006 (4th World Water Forum), seeks to:

• 'Improve water resources management for food security and environmental sustainability with a special focus on the reduction of poverty and hunger and the improvement of human health'
• 'Build bridges between agricultural and environmental communities on water resources issues, by improving the linkages between the sectoral approaches particularly at national level'

It aims to:

• Establish a process that will produce tangible solutions primarily at basin, national and local levels
• Develop a Knowledge Base - which is the synthesis of 'best practices' information from ongoing action projects relevant to the Dialogue
• Create a platform for local or basin-scale activities to promote the exchange of experience and the development and identification of best practices.
• Raise awareness
• Facilitate local knowledge input into national and basin level Dialogues

Activities at 3rd World Water Forum, Kyoto, Japan

The Water, Food and Environment sessions in Kyoto explored global environmental water requirements, a comprehensive assessment of water for agriculture, trade in virtual water as a means to alleviate water shortages, the governance of groundwater in Asia, water issues in Arab countries and the Nile Basin, and the potential of structured and facilitated dialogues among stakeholder groups to overcome conflicts and find widely supported water management strategies.

Recommendations from 3rd World Water Forum

• The guiding principle for striking a balance between water for food and environmental security must be integrated water resources management at the river basin level.
• Further development of the concept of virtual water in trade particularly international trade in food and fiber should focus on environmental, social and economic and political implications of using virtual water trade as a strategic instrument in water and food security policies, including WTO negotiations.
• The concept of environmental flow requirements need to be further worked out and applied at the basin level to provide a basis to strike a balance between water for food and environmental security.
• A new target on water for productive use would complement the existing water and sanitation targets. An appropriate target was formulated by the Prince of Orange in No Water No Future: increased food production, to achieve targets for decreasing malnourishment and rural poverty, without increasing global diversions of water to agriculture over the 2000 level.

Local Action

FAN secretariat attended a design workshop for Local Action in March 2002 organised by BothEnds and Gomukh. This produced a 'Local Action Strategy Plan' and 'Guidelines for Initiating Local Action'. To view this document or to read more please visit BothEnds

Local Action is defined as action (technical, institutional, procedural) initiated by local stakeholders who share common resources, problems and the consequences of a decision making process. The Action should have the potential to benefit other localities and/or provide input to river basin or national dialogues. Local Actors include NGOs, municipalities, farmers associations and other civil society organisations.

The objective of the Local Action component within the overall Dialogue programme is:

• River Basin dialogues include effective participation from/initiated by Local Action
• Integration of Local Action in National Dialogues
• Interaction between Local Action and Knowledge Base
• Implementation of Capacity Building activities

NGOs working on 'Local Action' might want to participate in the Dialogue programme for:

• Recognition and integration in policy discussions
• Interpretation of local knowledge for documentation and exchange
• Information about legal frameworks
• Access to institutions and stakeholders and information on the wider context
• Skills Transfer (e.g. dialogue facilitation, conflict resolution, research skills)
• Improve access to funding
• Facilitation of local action consensus building