New Water Policy and Practice Volume 1, Number 1 - Fall 2014 | Page 24
New Water Policy and Practice
scaling up of water and sanitation solutions—
expanding to national or regional scale what
is demonstrated successfully at village or
community level—does not happen due to
the human capacity gap (UNDP 2006).
The good news is that we are now
at a phase in the international development
dialogue in which each of these three reasons can be effectively addressed—through
innovative solutions, new capital from the
private sector, and capacity enhancement by
the international development community.
This opportunity has to do, in part, with the
ongoing debate to formulate the future development agenda as the Millennium Development Goals reach ‘maturity’ in 2015 and
a new set of Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) take their place. The formal proposal
for SDGs developed by the Open Working
Group of the United Nations General Assembly, which explicitly listed targets for ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, creates
ample room for optimism.
unrest are not good for business. In the water
domain, many of the big international corporations have realized that unfettered exploitation of water resources with no re-routing of benefits to respective communities is
not only a public relations disaster but also
bad for business. Many of these corporations
have thus channeled significant resources for
working on building social capital, through
community development activities, in tandem with the financial capital.
Second, the notion of ‘green economy’, new as it is, seems to be taking hold
in the aftermath of the Rio+20 conference
(UN-Water 2011). It offers a new perspective
for the well-established sustainable development agenda, as originally defined in the
Agenda 21 (UNCED 1992). The notion that
creation of jobs, business entrepreneurship,
and economic activity are integrally linked
to sustainable development will likely help
boost political uptake of the green economy
concepts. The same concepts, and the underlying political benefits, also extend to the water sector and can be used t