WP #4: Visions, Scenarios and Strategies

EMPOWERS Partnership is working in Egypt, Jordan and the West Bank/Gaza to develop tools and approaches that will lead to improved water governance, with a focus on practical applications at the local level.  The principle long-term goal of the project is to improve development and management of water resources at the intermediate and local level by promoting increased participation and representation of stakeholders in planning and decision-making processes.

To this end, the project is developing a planning cycle for Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM).  This cycle starts with the identification of water-related problems and the development of area specific long-term visions for water resource development that determine the strategies and plans to attain that vision.  This strategizing process is supported by the collection and analysis of relevant information on water resources, infrastructure, actors, demand and access, to be used in semi-quantitative Bayesian Networks (computer software) that help to validate and substantiate visions and strategies.  The aim of this planning cycle is to support stakeholders at local and intermediate levels in making the essential technical and political decisions to develop and manage their water resources. The overall EMPOWERS planning cycle is described in more detail in Working Paper 3.

This working paper describes the approach to developing future visions of water resource management, and of using scenarios as a tool to analyse key factors affecting the vision.  The scenarios developed are in turn used as a basis for identifying potential strategies and plans to achieve the vision that are feasible and desirable in terms of equity, economic efficiency and environmental sustainability.

One of the core assumptions of the EMPOWERS programme is that stakeholder involvement - particularly at the intermediate and local level -  in a process of visioning and development of scenarios leads to improved use and management of water governance.  Improved management implies taking better account of users needs and engenders collective responsibility for interventions in the water sector.  It is this larger process of participatory analysis and visioning, scenario building and strategic planning that is the real heart of EMPOWERS.

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