Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) depend on the input and involvement of a range of stakeholders operating at different levels, including local water users, government agencies, industry, basin authorities, and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).
Stakeholder involvement ensures that those reliant on water resources will be involved in water management decisions, and that information will be readily exchanged (GWP 2009a).
Key points:
- Ensure key stakeholders are represented in basin management
- Distinguish between information, consultation, participation and empowerment
- Carefully consider the balance between informing all and involving a few
- Ensure administrative processes do not jeopardise real participation
- Ensure participation is transparent
- Boost ownership of basin action plans by establishing and maintaining community participation
- Ensure financing for involving stakeholders is adequate
- Ensure communication between those managing local action plans, heads of government water agencies, and heads of basin organisations
- Develop the capacity of vulnerable groups so they can participate in planning and implementation at appropriate levels (GWP 2009)
Identifying stakeholders is the first step in the stakeholder involvement process. One helpful technique is to construct a matrix of stakeholders with their corresponding roles and responsibilities. There are a number of other tools and techniques for stakeholder involvement, ranging from village meetings, to open houses, town hall meetings, interviews, surveys, and stakeholder advisory groups containing a representative selection of stakeholders.
The box below presents some ideas for local participation in water management at the basin level.
