Messages to non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

The United Nations World Water Development

Report 3

Messages Series

Civil society responds in many ways to the challenges of underdevelopment, poverty environmental degradation and under-resourcing.

Locally, nationally and internationally, in developing countries and throughout the developed world, individuals organize themselves into non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to emphasize humanitarian issues and to act as an effective voice for the concerns of ordinary people. Some organizations take a long-term approach and others focus on immediate support in disaster situations.

Networking for knowledge management One of the essential roles that NGOs play in development is the sharing of their knowledge and depth of experience.

The Internet has revolutionized this role in recent years, making the exchange of information across countries and continents easy and fast.Many local NGOs have developed technologies that are applicable on a small scale at the local level. These are often based on simple concepts that cannot be produced and shipped for global profit, but which can make a huge difference in the communities where they’re used. One example of this, which is outlined in World Water Development Report, is the case of the domestic water filters developed by Potters for Peace (www.pottersforpeace.org) – a US-based network founded in Nicaragua in the 1980s. Their low-tech, low-cost water filters have enabled poor families all over the world to eliminate water-borne disease agents from their drinking water.Successful tools and methods developed by NGOs are many and varied, but extending the scope of these projects is rarely easy. Accessing appropriate engineering skills can make even small projects difficult to advance, and the problem is further exacerbated by a lack of capacity to implement larger-scale technologies such as waste-treatment units and the major infrastructural projects needed to manage water.NGOs have an increasingly important role to play in testing and applying new, small-scale, local technologies. By connecting to other NGOs and networks, they can provide access to information and know-how and help communities to leapfrog many of the hurdles they currently face.Huge innovation is also taking place in terms of how NGOs arrange financial support for individual projects. And here again, the Internet is the key, allowing specific ventures to be financed directly. For example, AKVO, an NGO dedicated to water and sanitation schemes, has set up a knowledge-exchange website (www.akvo.org) that matches financial donors with specific projects around the world. Another NGO, Kiva (www.kiva.org), specializes in microcredit – extending very small loans directly to individual entrepreneurs to alleviate poverty. To date, 430,000 Kiva lenders have made micro-loans to 82,000 poor borrowers in developing countries.

Messages to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) | The United Nations World Water Development Report 3

The UN World Water Development Report 3: Water in a Changing World comprises three main messages:• Water is essential for achieving sustainable

development and reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – none of which can be achieved without policy measures that consider the environment and disadvantaged communities.

• The major decisions about water issues are not taken by water-managers but by leaders in government, the private sector and civil society – all of whom must learn to recognize water’s role in obtaining their objectives.

• Water is linked to the global crises of climate change, troubled financial markets, and the ongoing problems of food and energy supplies and prices. These crises can only be tackled successfully in tandem with solving the world water crisis.

NGOs are very effective in getting aid directly to the people who need it most. Right now, one person in every six lacks access to safe drinking water. This is a motivating factor for many of the NGOs whose focus is to bring clean, safe water to developing nations. But water also plays a role in providing good health, education, adequate nourishment, environmental protection, energy and employment, and is also linked to climate change – all subjects of interest to huge numbers of NGOs.NGOs continue to advocate for transparency in water services as well as demanding more information and greater clarity on the current state of water resources and how they are being used.

The 2009 UN World Water Development Report is relevant to a wide variety of NGOs operating at neighborhood, community, regional, national and international level

Outside the water domain One of the central messages of the report is the importance of choices made outside the water domain.Decisions made in agriculture, urban planning, trade, and industrial development all have an impact on the issue of water. In fact, these decisions have much greater consequences than the decisions made by water managers – and leaders in the NGO community can influence them.

When you are promoting the issue of agriculture, you are also making decisions about water, because water is so closely linked to every aspect of agriculture. This is a message that has been absorbed faster by the NGO community than by other sectors, and networking and interaction between NGOs has allowed many programmes in key areas to be adapted quickly.

We urge NGOs that are active in the areas of agriculture, small-scale industry, poverty reduction, and nature conservation to consider water as an issue that is central to what they are trying to achieve in the long term.

InformationOne of the strongest tools for NGOs is to be informed.As an NGO member or leader, you often know what is happening in your area sooner and better than others. When advocating, it is essential that you can convince on the basis of informed argument – that’s where your strengths lie.

Water in a Changing World argues that information on water resources and water use is needed more than ever before because of the uncertainty in the key drivers of water management. The risk of making the wrong choices is increasing, and poor countries lack the means to correct expensive errors. But in spite of this increased need for information on water resources, the amount of information that’s actually being collected is still falling. This could prove to be a dangerous way of cutting costs!

NGOs often play an important role in ensuring that public decision-making systems remain transparent and accountable. Curbing corruption in the water services sector could save between 20% and 70% of invested resources. The key elements of a successful anti-corruption strategy include citizen participation and access to information, independent checks and balances and mechanisms to oversee operations, public-sector codes of conduct and attention to elements that may prove to be incentives to corruption.

As a member of an NGO, you are in a position to demand information and advocate for more publicly available data on water resources and water services. You may also be involved in generating information that can be made available to the wider community.

Linking with governmentThe role of NGOs in extending development and community actions to a larger scale is often debated. Where you are able to start contributing to this, there is often a weak linkage with government policies and strategies. In some cases, NGOs – particularly international ones that have adequate financial and human resources – have been accused of taking over the role of government in terms of planning and priority setting. This can create serious tensions that in many places may be hard to overcome.

Because you often rely on non-governmental sources of funding, such as philanthropy and donations, you can find yourself oriented towards emblematic projects that often centre on the world’s ‘hotspots’ and more accessible areas, and towards shorter-term results (1 to 3 years). Competition for funding can lead to proposals that are not always realistic in terms of their focus and projected results, with little attention given to leaving a lasting legacy of impact and progress. Nevertheless, through these programmes, billions of dollars are being directed towards vital work on water, sanitation and environmental issues.

Initiatives for effective co-ordination between NGOs and government, such as the approach followed in the Country Assistance Framework (CAF) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, can help to ensure that available capacity is put to best use.

In many countries there is an urgent need to establish country-level co-ordination amongst NGOs and between NGOs and government departments and businesses. This co-ordination needs to be practical and aimed at improving the understanding of the roles, responsibilities and strengths of the various actors.

More focus needs to be given to the diversification of resources and the generation of support from within countries. National-level philanthropy, NGO subsidies and NGO sponsorship are essential for developing an organized civil society that can truly play a key role in delivering the MDGs and protecting water resources.

Messages to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) | The United Nations World Water Development Report 3

Co-ordination within the NGO communityAs NGO members, you may be involved in advocacy for a group or cause, fundraising, knowledge-management, or some form of implementation – or indeed, you may be involved in all of these areas. Every aspect of water use and water management is being addressed by one or more groups in civil society. Together with the breathtaking developments in communication, this makes for a very hopeful development: a connected global community.

The sheer numbers of NGOs involved in any specific sector can pose problems and efforts need to be co-ordinated to ensure that limited resources are put to best use. It’s worth bearing in mind that competition for high-profile locations that increase visibility is something that may skew the decisions of the donor community as well as those taken by the NGOs themselves.

In many situations in all parts of the world, a wide variety of NGOs are working on water, sanitation and environmental issues. Very often their activities are uncoordinated and scattered throughout many small projects. It is often unclear who the individual organizations are and what is being done by whom in different areas, towns and villages.

Leadership, Management and AdministrationCo-ordination problems are further complicated by issues around accountability and delivering tangible results that have a real and lasting impact.

Often there is a small cadre of very enthusiastic and devoted staff and volunteers who don’t always have the professional capabilities needed to deliver beyond a first trial at local level. In a situation where a charismatic leader is heading the initial efforts, it is often hard to see how the project can be sustained into the future.

With a very rapid growth in the number of NGOs worldwide – including the NGOs working on water issues – there’s a real need to strengthen the management and administration of these organizations as a growing group of important actors. Good administration is a key requirement for receiving funding from any source and it will secure the credibility of any organization. In this area, much can be learned from small- and medium-enterprise management and capacity development. The development of the managerial and administrative capacities of NGOs is vital for the creation of a healthy civil society movement around water. Significant investments will need to be made in many countries in this area. Partnerships with government and the business sector can help to facilitate this.

In many instances, NGOs make serious efforts to improve co-ordination and the sharing of their experience. In order to scale up, further collaborative efforts among NGOs is needed. Defining the compatibilities of various groups and the geographic areas within which they operate can help to create clarity on the best way of achieving their common humanitarian objectives. Co-ordination can be conducted informally through direct contact between groups or through formal national NGO platforms.

The United Nations World Water Development Report 3: Water in a Changing World

The report is presented together with a case study volume: Facing the Challenge. Adopting the premise that local actions and on-the-ground insights are the starting point of a global strategy to improve management of the world’s freshwater resources, these 20 case studies from around the world examine water challenges and the differing management approaches taken in response in Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, the Cholistan desert (Pakistan), Estonia, the Han River basin (Republic of Korea), Istanbul (Turkey), the Lake Merín basin (Brazil and Uruguay), La Plata River basin (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), the Netherlands, Pacific island states, the Po River basin (Italy), the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (Spain), Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, the Vuoksi River basin (Finland and the Russian Federation) and Zambia.

SC-2009/WS/14

Water is vital to all aspects of human life. Using water wisely and managing our water resources is an essential component of growth, socioeconomic development and reducing poverty. Yet around the world we see water scarcity problems rising. And if we don’t take action, they risk becoming even more severe.Coordinated by the World Water Assessment Programme, the United Nations World Water Development Report 3: Water in a Changing World is a joint effort of the 26 United Nations agencies and entities that make up UN-Water. The report brings together

some of the world’s leading experts to analyse the state of the world’s freshwater resources: it monitors changes in our water supplies and in how we manage them, and tracks our progress towards achieving international development targets. Water in a Changing World also provides decision makers with the tools to implement sustainable use of our water – offering best practices to help stimulate ideas and actions for better stewardship of this most essential resource.

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