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Inside this Issue: Experienced, Involved, Ignored Draft resolution puts UNEP on the agenda |
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Monday, May 5, 2008Raising the Profile of Water and Sanitation at the CSDWith a lack of clarity regarding the process of reviewing the CSD-13 commitments on water and sanitation, The Global Public Policy Network stepped up to the task. By: Hannah Stoddart, Stakeholder Forum At the 13th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, the themes water, sanitation and human settlements were discussed. After two weeks of intense negotiation, the CSD-13 outcome document was released with overall 72 commitments relating to water and sanitation. These commitments were divided into five areas: Access to basic water services; Integrated water resources management; Access to basic sanitation; Wastewater collection, treatment and re-use. The attention given to integrated water resources management was welcomed by many parties, though it was also felt that some significant areas of concern, such as climate change, transboundary issues and the right to access to water and sanitation were either conspicuously absent from the document, or not dealt with explicitly enough.
In preparation for the review at CSD-16, the GPPN secretariat identified key global stakeholders with experience and expertise in the water and sanitation sector, and sought their feedback on how far they felt CSD-13 commitments had been met. The GPPN called for water and sanitation stakeholders to provide their feedback on:
The GPPN will be outlining its findings in Outreach Issues over the coming two weeks, focusing on key areas in more detail, conducting interviews with water management stakeholders, and inviting many of those who contributed to the review to outline some issues highlighted by the GPPN in more detail. The GPPN has a number of key objectives for this CSD: it hopes to ensure the take-up of some of our findings and recommendations by the Chair of the two day review, and perhaps more significantly we hope to see some policy implications for CSD-17 as a result of this review. As already mentioned above, the CSD-13 report did not provide significant emphasis on a number of important issues for the achievement of water and sanitation commitments and the MDGs. The GPPN in its Emerging Issues and Future Challenges paper has highlighted those issues as prioritized by stakeholders, and would like to see CSD reflect the need for further discussion and more robust policy commitments in these areas. |
An overwhelmingly positive outcome, however, was the commitment to review commitments made around water and sanitation at the 16th session of the CSD. This was the first time a review of this kind had been endorsed by the CSD, and offered governments and civil society alike the opportunity to take stock, report and evaluate progress towards achieving targets and commitments, and identify obstacles and constraints. The details of how such a review was to be conducted, however, were not forthcoming – the process of gathering reports from countries, the length of the review, whether there would be regional meetings - all these questions remained unanswered. It was as a result of this lack of clarity that the Global Public Policy Network on Water Management evolved (GPPN). A meeting at Stockholm World Water Week in 2006 with a range of water and sanitation stakeholders concluded that the review would be enhanced by creating a space ahead of CSD-16 where all stakeholders could provide inputs on how far commitments had been met. The GPPN would also provide a mechanism for ensuring that the profile of water and sanitation remained high during the thematic discussions at CSD-16 on Africa and Agriculture. It was with the overwhelming support from stakeholders at this meeting that Stakeholder Forum and the Stockholm International Water Institute decided to join forces to establish the GPPN. The Steering Committee consists of three Northern and 2 Southern governments, WBCSD, World Water Council, WWF and the Freshwater Action Network.