Thursday, May 15, 2008

Why we need policy discussions on water and sanitation at CSD-17 next year

By: Hannah Stoddart, Stakeholder Forum

CSD was given a mandate in 2005 to review the CSD-13 commitments on water and sanitation in 2008 and 2012 respectively, yet no indication was given on how these review sessions would be followed up with policy. Perhaps most significantly, the review process allows governments to identify emerging issues which have evolved to require policy commitments. It is therefore difficult to discern how an albeit ‘out of cycle’ review process on any given topic could follow a different pattern – the very suggestion that it could throws into question the whole reasoning behind the CSD’s commitment to formulate policy on the basis of review.

A more issue-specific reason for policy is that the international community has rightly recognized that water and sanitation fundamentally underpin any progress towards sustainable development. Effective water management is integral to coping with inevitable climate change. Efforts to assist development will invariably fail unless citizens gain universal access to water and sanitation. It is unfortunate that reviews invariably highlight where the international community has failed and where more action is required, yet the very nature of international decision making should be to constantly strive for betterment, and to respond to challenges with ambitious policy commitments. The CSD has heard what the challenges for water and sanitation – governments have shared their successes and failures, the Major Groups have spoken with conviction, the Global Public Policy Network has shared its findings. Now is the time for the CSD to show that it is truly responding to international priorities and is keeping pace with changes that demand new policy solutions for sustainable development.

Furthermore, the CSD-13 decision did not deal significantly with a number of pressing issues including water management and climate change, the right to access to water and sanitation, virtual water, and legal frameworks for managing international watercourses. All of these issues were highlighted by stakeholders; the human rights council has just appointed an Independent Expert on the right to water and sanitation; the Stockholm Water prize was awarded this year to Professor Tony Allan, the inventor of virtual water. Can the CSD keep pace?

There have been suggestions that water and sanitation can be weaved into policy discussions next year through the other thematic issues, as the topics are all ‘interconnected’. Yet this argument raises the question as to why CSD has decided to focus on specific themes at all, as sustainable development is after all as much a world view as an economic system, which demands governments to look at the inter-relatedness of all policies – economic, social and environmental. The answer is simple: CSD deals with issues separately because it is more manageable to do so, even if the thematic issues naturally overlap. We must conclude, therefore, that as we have had a separate review, water and sanitation must also be dealt with separately as policy discussions, whilst simultaneously recognizing the necessity to identify interlinkages with other issues. As an aside it should be noted that introducing sanitation into any of the thematic issues other than rural development would present a significant challenge to even the most committed lobbyist.

A legitimate concern among some stakeholders is the risk that other issues may be marginalized by introducing water and sanitation into the policy agenda next year. In light of the unfortunate clash of the water and sanitation review with the SIDS day this year, such concerns are legitimate. Yet all the talk in the UN corridors is of how CSD could be streamlined so that pre-written statements give way to less time-consuming dialogue.

There are ways to make the process accommodate the issues – SIDS should rightly demand their own space without competing discussions, but a review should also demand resulting policy.

Calling for a policy year on water and sanitation at CSD-17 is not about asking for more hollow commitments and duplication. It is about demonstrating that the CSD can respond keenly and innovatively to the demands of an ever changing agenda in which new knowledge and developments require reappraisal of old commitments and the seizing of new challenges. It is about CSD recognizing that some issues underpin all attempts at achieving sustainable development. It is about positioning CSD at the forefront of the agenda for making a difference to peoples’ lives. It is about consistency – both in process and in intent.