30 and 31 March 2015 IRC will host the Multiple Use water Services Group meeting in The Hague, the Netherlands. The goal of the meeting is to identify the potential contributions of a MUS perspective to the water resource management and water tenure debates, in particular ongoing global efforts to strengthen justice and equity considerations.
Published on: 26/02/2015
Most of the focus in MUS has been on a bottom-up effort, starting with poor people’s multiple water needs, and advocating for policy change to meet these needs. Little attention has been paid as yet, neither by the MUS Group nor by the global water community, to the link between MUS as pro-poor water service delivery and water resource management in general and water tenure in particular. The upcoming MUS Group meeting seeks to fill this gap, also by inviting experts on these issues beyond the MUS Group.
Morning: concepts and issues
9.00 – 9.30: Welcome by IRC (Patrick Moriarty, Stef Smits) and the MUS Group coordinator (Barbara van Koppen), and introductions
9.30 – 10.00: Introduction to the theme and day program (Barbara van Koppen)
10.00 – 11.00: Water tenure from a legal pluralist perspective. Presentation and discussion (Steve Hodgson, environmental lawyer, and lead author of various publications on water tenure, also in collaboration with FAO)
11.00 – 11.15: break
11.15 – 11.45: FAO's and others’ current initiatives on small-scale productive water uses for food security, including a water component along the lines of FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (Robina Wahaj, Irrigation Officer, Land and Water Division FAO)
11.45 – 12.30: (presenter tbc) Legal pluralism, water for basic livelihoods, and license systems. Presentation and discussion.
12.30 – 13.30 lunch
Afternoon: cases
13.30 – 14.30: Water supplies in pastoralist areas of Kenya. Ensuring water for people and for cattle (IRC)
14.30 – 15.00: MUS and water resources management in Ethiopia (Marieke Adank, IRC)
15.00 -15.30: Improving agricultural water management in rural Ethiopia: lessons from the Global Water Initiative (Bethel Terefe, tbc).
15.30 – 16.15: the case for a human right to water for livelihoods; the need for quantification (Barbara van Koppen, IWMI)
16.15 – 17.00: Conclusions and gaps on MUS and water resource management.
Evening: Joint dinner in The Hague (optional)
Morning: cases
9.00 – 9.30: Benefits of multiple-use of water in Honduras (Andrés Gil, IRC)
9.30 -12.00: update on members’ activities
20 minutes presentations and discussion by:
13.00-16.00: MUS Group governance and ways forward
More details on registration and discussion topics can be found on the MUS website, see link below.
