New Water Policy and Practice Volume 1, Number 2 - Spring 2015 | Page 12

Understanding Six Water Leadership Roles

policy change in bureaucratic contexts (Laing 2014; Laing, Thwaites, and Walter
2015). To this end we see the lobbying and science advocacy literature (e.g., Godwin
et al. 2012; Keller 2009) to be highly relevant in sharpening the leadership strategies
water leaders could use to drive change in policy.
2.5. 2013–14: The design of a new international water leadership programme

In 2013, a partnership between UNESCO-IHE, the IWC, and Nyenrode
University was formed to build a new IWLP. This initiative aims to help mid-career,
emerging water leaders from developing countries to build the capacity to exert
influence and drive change to deliver more sustainable forms of water management
(see Lincklaen Arriëns and Wehn de Montalvo 2013). In comparison with the
established IWC Water Leadership Program, the IWLP proposes to have a more
diverse target audience, greater involvement of leaders from developing countries,
and greater capacity to address a broader range of water leadership roles. The design
of this programme also provided the opportunity to build on the preliminary role
descriptions developed by the IWC to incorporate more recent descriptions of water
leaders, such as descriptions provided by Brouwer and Biermann (2011), Herrick and
Pratt (2012), Lincklaen Arriëns and Wehn de Montalvo (2013) and Subijanto et al.
(2013).

The design of this programme is continuing at the time of writing. One
significant outcome of this process has been the identification and characterisation
of six water leadership roles that are likely to be relevant to the target audience of
the IWLP. These roles are the focus of this paper and help to inform the design
and content of the IWLP. For example, the 360° feedback, challenging on-the-job
leadership assignments, training and coaching activities potentially included within
the IWLP will provide opportunities to assess the relevance and suitability of these
roles to each participant, build knowledge and skills to more effectively play these
leadership roles and build understanding of how people playing these roles often
work together. These activities also provide participants with tools to use in these
roles (e.g., relevant leadership models), relevant case studies and the opportunity to
identify specific actions that the participants can take to improve their performance
in these roles.

3 - Six water leadership roles

T

his section describes six common water leadership roles that are potentially
relevant to emerging, non-executive water leaders in developing and developed
countries. Additional roles may exist, and some of these roles can also be played
by executive and political leaders (e.g., the enabling and strategic leader roles). Table 1
provides a brief summary of each role and some examples of water practitioners who
have played these roles (i.e., examples known to the authors).

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