CLOSING CEREMONY 31 May 2013

Symposium Final Reflections Guy Alaerts 1 June 2013

Contents 1. Observations and insights 2. Next steps 3. Who will take the lead?

1.Observations and insights

Observations of the Symposium and Expert Workshop – 1 The key drivers  220 participants  60 nationalities  Strong gender balance  Growing voice of young generation  Most discussion on drinking water supply, and global challenges. Less on irrigation and food, watersheds, large infrastructure, …   Most: capacity experts, government, international organisations, few private sector 

Observations – 2 Capacity development is as much about identifying and articulating “problems” as it is about “solutions” We should not presume “problems”, but build capacity among users, firms, stakeholders to discover the problems that can be solved …  We should learn from the private sector (Toyota Co, GE, …) and philosophy (Wittgenstein)  Apply approach to the water sector of “knowledge management”

Observations – 3 Knowledge and Capacity Development takes time ! It takes 5 years to build a bridge, 10+ years to build effective capacity in an organisation All capacity improvement implies change ! = change of old habits = requires un-learning = consumes time  Technical Ministries, Ministries of Finance or Planning, Auditors, development partners, should recognize this in their planning and objectives

Observations – 4 Capacity and Knowledge Development is a wide field  We all should be aware of the width of the field, and some should specialize in the generic issues  But most of us should be operational on sub-themes or clusters of issues:  Education, research, innovation  Organisation capacity  Community and civil society capacity  Sector-wide capacity

Observations – 5 We recognize that there are four sets of Competences: Technical competences Managerial competences Governance competences Competence to learn …  Urgent need to start working on the modalities how we can encourage professionals, the utilities, and the whole sector to put in place a priority and mechanisms to institutionalize learning – from successes and mistakes

Observations – 6 Knowledge and Capacity Development are “good business” For the sector, and for the country ! For today, and for the future  We need to be better able to measure impact and economic and social return on investment  Three levels of analysis of investments:  Key Performance Indicator on Results (existing)  Key Performance Indicators on Capacity (to be developed)  Protocols to measure impact, and learn from it (to be developed)

Observations - 7 To be sustainable, any action must be embedded in an organisation ! Water utility, Water User Association, River Basin Organisation We talk about strategy and policy … … and projects and communities on-the-ground … … but we know very little about organisations !

Observations - 7 Public sector people know little about organisations  Learn from the private sector  Improve understanding how “capacity” works in organisation  Thus, we need to:  Complement the “education of individuals” with organisation-focused capacity development programs to help integrate and use knowledge  Understand how organisations can foster knowledge through longer-term Human Resources Policies  Have plan to avoid erosion of tacit knowledge

Observations – 8 Youth … they have the greatest stake in a world that is sustainable They bring creativity, enthusiasm and new flexibility (and social media), especially important as KCD is time-consuming  Create opportunities to partner them with senior professionals  Create opportunities for jobs

Observations – 9 It is now a global challenge – we are all physically connected, but also are facing the same kind of institutional challenges  We must build on global and regional Partnerships – away from the “donor” concept – recognize that we are partners who can learn from each other, against whom we can benchmark ourselves

We can demonstrate progress … Capacity Building Symposium 1996 IHE UNDP World Bank Institute

We can demonstrate progress … Capacity Building Symposium 1996 IHE UNDP World Bank Institute

We can demonstrate progress … The 1996 Symposium Stressed networks as tool for knowledge dissemination and generation Spawned highly effective networks – who are now “leaders”: WaterNet of Universities in SADC (Southern Africa) POWER Global Network Cap-Net And contributed to other global and regional networks, i.a.: CINARA Latin American Network African Water Utilities Network Network of Asian River Basin Organisations (NARBO)

2.Next Steps

Next steps – 1 Two main areas of work: (i) Roll out capacity development to local governments for service delivery (ii) Prepare for the future challenges: Climate variability Growing consumption and water footprint  Prepare Framework for action and for traction  Global Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on Water (and capacity?)  Act now: KCD takes 10+ years to show impact, and “If we fail to prepare for the future, we prepare to fail.”

Next steps – 2 Prepare National Water Capacity Development Strategies Take a programmatic forward-looking approach for knowledge management across the sector Costa Rica ? Indonesia ?

Next steps – 4 Offer a Water Leadership Programme  New initiative by International Water Centre, Nyenrode Business University, and UNESCO-IHE

Next steps – 5 Many other initiatives:  Create Young Professionals Program (NARBO)  Use of Information and Communication Systems  Virtual and Global Campuses  ICT driven capacity building  Community of Practice of those present here this week  And more …

3.Who will take the lead?

Purpose of 5th Symposium Well, this is now all in your hands ! Guy Alaerts Unesco-IHE

CLOSING CEREMONY 31 May 2013