Side event at the Bonn International Conference on Freshwater, 5th December 2001

This output directly addressed the global policy audience and served: 1) to raise the profile of the project amongst an international group of policy makers; and 2) to provide a platform for three of the five country researchers to present scoping study results.

Six members of the research team were present: Alan Nicol and Sylvie Cordier (ODI), Barnaby Peacocke (ITDG), Omotto Josiah (ITDG East Africa (Kenya), Linda Milazi (WaterAid, Malawi) and Rajindra Ariyabandu (Water Resources Secretariat, Sri Lanka). The meeting, chaired by Jon Lane (former WaterAid director and now a private consultant) drew some 30 participants from a diverse range of countries and institutions, including Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, governmental, non-governmental, private sector individual participants. Ian Curtis (DFID Senior Water Adviser) and Meera Mehta (Senior Financing Specialist, Water and Sanitation Program, Africa) provided comment on the presentations.

An initial project introduction by Alan Nicol, including the origin of the project in sustainable livelihoods thinking, the concerns raised surrounding demand-based approaches during the 1990s and ways in which the project sought constructive policy engagement was followed by an examination of some of the emerging policy themes surrounding water security and livelihoods by Barnaby Peacocke. These were followed by presentations of early inception scooping study results by the three country researchers.

Project introduction in pdf (60Kb)
Emerging policy themes surrounding water and livelihoods in pdf (181Kb)
Kenya case study in pdf (101Kb)
Malawi case study in pdf (16Kb)
Sri Lanka case study in pdf (9Kb)

Discussion following the presentations both underlined the importance of the ground-level realities presented by the country researchers (when confronted by the 'good ideas' of policy makers), and also helped to direct thinking on the project in a number of important areas. There was insufficient time for full responses the questions raised, although a number were addressed in the discussant's comments.

One participant asked whether the project concept paper was deliberately downplaying water for health issues? [It was explained following the meeting that this was not the case, rather is sought a broader conceptualisation of health issues at a household level under the SL umbrella; i.e. for instance seeing morbidity as an important factor in the sustainability or not of labour-intensive livelihood activities]. The conceptualisation of 'household' by the project was raised, including how issues of gender and intra-household level negotiations were being taken on board? Furthermore, was the approach being developed sufficiently integrated (including, for instance, within wider water resources management issues)? Another participant underscored the importance of income-generating activities such as urban irrigation and the need to look broadly at the conceptualisation of livelihoods.

The discussants added useful project steer, both from the perspective of links to demand-responsive approaches (the key policy focus of SecureWater) and from the SL perspective. Meera Mehta addressed three key issues: Firstly the question of how to scale up DRA to a countrywide level. On this point, uses of water for productive purposes and links to financing capacity were clearly an important issue, she argued. Furthermore, issues of scaling up and incorporation at a policy level were significant, and she pointed to practical examples of this from Eritrea. Secondly she stressed the important link to decentralisation processes in Africa, particularly in relation to the question of local-level resource mobilisation, and wasy in which local institutions can determine rules governing water supply development at a local level. Her third point emphasised the importance of links to micro credit provision, given that DRA and sustainable livelihoods incorporated important financial components.

Ian Curtis emphasised the importance of SecureWater within DFID's KAR research programme singling out the way it was incorporating the increasingly significant livelihoods thinking within DFID's policy concerns in the water supply and sanitation sector. Echoing a point raised by a participant and the issue put by Meera Mehta on productive uses and financing linkages, he outlined how, in Ghana, micro irrigation was of particular importance to some communities and households. Linked to this, and the wider question of financing, however, were problems of indebtedness. Hence, whilst micro credit was an avenue to explore, there was always a flip side to provision. He thought that the debt issues might be important to look at within the project. Finally, he recognised that research is important when it can actually improve interventions, and he hoped that this would be the major outcome of the SecureWater project.

Participants

Contact us:
SecureWater@odi.org.uk