Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

T H E W O R L D ’ S W A T E R C R I S I S / 7International Monetary Fund (IMF) Poverty Reduction StrategyPapers (PRSPs), which call for multidimensional assessments ofpoverty that reflect specific local conditions. Other internationalfinancial institutions, such as the Asian Development Bank, havealso developed new poverty-based policies in recent years that areguiding major changes in their approach to the assistance providedto developing countries.The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) has producedPoverty Guidelines (2001) that recognize the need for a sharperand more explicit focus on poverty reduction. In these, ‘poverty,gender and environment are mutually reinforcing, complementaryand cross-cutting facets of sustainable development’, so that anypoverty reduction strategy must focus on gender and environmentalissues. Poverty itself is defined as being rooted in the lack ofeconomic, human, political, socio-cultural and protective capabilities.In a joint contribution to the WSSD preparatory process onlinking poverty and environmental management, the government ofthe United Kingdom, the European Commission, UNDP and theWorld Bank also emphasized the material and non-material aspectsof poverty including lack of income and material means, poor accessto services, poor physical security and the lack of empowerment toengage in political processes and decisions that affect one’s life.They focused on livelihoods, health and vulnerability as three keydimensions of poverty reduction.The ‘livelihoods approach’, a complex and dynamic model, hasbeen developed by UNDP and others (Carney, 1998; Rennie andSingh, 1996). The core of this approach is that poverty reflects pooraccess to livelihood assets (natural, social, human, financial andphysical capital in the Department for International Development[DFID] model) and vulnerability to external shocks and trends insociety, the economy and the environment such as market pricemovements, natural disasters and political change. All of these newapproaches are based on a far more explicit poverty reduction agendathan has been evident in the past. They reflect the internationalconsensus that other needs and priorities, including environmentalprotection and peace and stability, are unlikely to be realized in aworld in which the poverty of so many is found alongside theaffluence of so few.One of the main characteristics of poverty is now seen asvulnerability: the extent to which people are vulnerable to theharmful impacts of factors that disrupt their lives and which arebeyond their immediate control. This includes both shocks (suddenchanges such as natural disasters, war or collapsing market prices)and trends (for example, gradual environmental degradation,oppressive political systems or deteriorating terms of trade). Manysuch vulnerabilities related to water resources (for example, healththreats, droughts or floods, cyclones and pollution). The need tointegrate vulnerability reduction into water policies (and in particularthe links between water policies, disaster mitigation and climatechange) is being increasingly considered. Recognition ofvulnerability as a key issue is also expressed in the growing interestin impact assessment as a way of identifying vulnerable individualsor communities who may carry a disproportionate negative burdenresulting from development, including water resource development.Early determination of possible environmental, social and healthimpacts of water resources development provides ampleopportunities for environmental management plans, healthpromotion and protection and social safeguards to be implementedto optimum effect.The idea of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) iswidely accepted as the starting point for water policies, but alongwith it there is the increasing recognition of the need to adaptIWRM to the specific needs of the poor. There is also a need toensure that developing integration is not done at the expense ofmeeting such pressing needs that may arise in one particular aspectof water management such as drinking water supply, improvedirrigation or protection of threatened ecosystem functions. Effectiveand immediate actions to meet these needs are important if wateris to be prioritized over other areas of policy.Partnerships between different stakeholders at all levels(international, national and local) are stressed in most new policyapproaches, with the recognition that solutions to water problemscannot be achieved by one organization or even one segment ofsociety. In particular, the inclusion of civil society organizations andof local community groups is emphasized in most new approachesand policies. Indeed, changing institutional mandates is central tonew water policies and laws around the world.International targets and the Millennium Development GoalsThe integral role of water in international development has beenrecognized over the last two decades, with several internationalagreements specifying targets on water supply and sanitation datingback to the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) 1980International Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (IWSSD), whichestablished the target of universal coverage of a safe water supply andsanitation by 1990. While significant numbers of people gained accessto improved drinking water and better sanitation over the decade, thetarget was not met due to population growth. It was, however,readopted as a target for the year 2000 at the World Summit forChildren in 1990. More recently targets have been established by theWater Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) as part ofthe process leading up to the Second World Water Forum in The Haguein March 2000. The targets were presented in the report Vision 21: AShared Vision for Hygiene, Sanitation and Water Supply and aFramework for Action (see box 1.1, WSSCC, 2000).