Asia Pacific Consultation Workshop on Water and Poverty

In the context of the results of the recently held WSSD, which reaffirmed commitment to cut by half the number of people with inadequate clean water and sanitation by 2015, a water and poverty initiative is being developed. Led by the Asian Development Bank with several collaborating partners, the aim of the initiative will be to focus on action to increase water security for the poor.

Water security is not about insufficient water resources but about women and men not having sufficient access to it. This initiative seeks to develop actions for the poor to increase their access water resources. By bringing partners together to share ideas and experiences the initiative will bring knowledge and skills of all stakeholders to contribute to poverty reduction through water actions.

Specifically, the regional consultation had the objectives of:

generating a better understanding of and consensus on the role of water in poverty reduction policies and programmes in the Asia Pacific region;
evaluating and elaborating upon the thematic framework of the water and poverty initiative, including identifying the specific issues that should be included under the six key action areas;
establishing an Asia-Pacific position on water and poverty for the 3rd WWF in Kyoto;
discussing and preparing innovative approaches to reducing poverty through water management, based on new partnership arrangements that can identify specific proposals for action to be launched in Kyoto.

Around 300 participants attended this session from the region. The three day conference was organised around a general plenary as a starting point to reiterate the need for this initiative, its background and framework mentioned earlier. Two working group sessions were spread over a period of two days with working groups discussing the issues to be included under each of the six key action areas, and recommended actions to be taken forward. The final day of the conference ended with a plenary to consolidate the outcomes of the working group sessions and identify preparatory steps for the 3rd WWF water and poverty day. Added to the last day was also a series of parallel workshops for participants to present case studies. Two of the case studies prepared by the GWA ambassadors were presented here. The executive secretary was facilitator during the entire conference.

The GWA who is a collaborating partner of the initiative attended with a total of 8 ambassadors and 6 case studies. Each of the gender ambassadors prepared a report on the working groups, which ca be accessed here.