INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FRESHWATER
BONN AND THE MULTI STAKEHOLDER PROCESS
LESSONS FOR THE WSSD

Views on the International Conference on Freshwater by Liane Greeff, EMG

"Many people regard access to drinking water and sanitation to be a human right" (Bonn Recommendations for Action). The problem is that many people and governments do not. China for obvious reasons, the USA for less obvious reasons. To some of the more cynical of us, the Bonn Conference represented a real attempt to walk the thin line between polarised viewpoints, and to chart a real way forward. This too is the challenge for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

The International Conference on Freshwater was held in Bonn from 3 to 7 December 2001. It was an experiment in international dialogue in the sense that five major groups were identified - NGOs, Trade Unions, Local Government, Farmers and Business - as being key to the water sector debate. Unlike previous United Nations fora, these major groups were allocated equal status as the government delegates and therefore played an active role in the multi-stakeholder dialogue sessions, the three working groups and the plenary negotiations regarding the formulation of the "Recommendations for Action". These Recommendations for Action represents the conclusions of the Conference and was an attempt to transform the debate from policy proposals to practical actions that can be implemented.

OUTCOMES OF BONN

A remarkable level of consensus was reached on the Recommendations for Action, whilst a number of critical points of contention remain. One of the key achievements of the NGO inputs was to extend the millennium target of reducing the number of people without access to water by 2015, to include halving the proportion of people without access to adequate sanitation.

Other highlights of the Recommendations for Action include:

the issue of corruption was targeted; water should be prioritised for basic needs and ecosystem purposes; cost recovery should not be a barrier to poor people's access to water and sanitation; and "private sector participation should not be imposed on developing countries as a conditionality for funding".

Much of the debate was linked to the role of the private sector in water delivery, with a call from NGOs, Trade Unions, some industry delegates for a global evaluation of the experiences with respect to privatisation to date. This was echoed by governments, such as Yemen and Mauritius, who felt that privatisation was being imposed on them through international financial arrangement. They argued that privatising the water sector was not a sovereign decision as suggested by other delegates.

Due to the repeated calls for a global evaluation of private sector involvement, the German Government concluded with their commitment to oversee the initiation of such an evaluation.

THE PROCESS

To start a conference by making space for all major stakeholder groups to say exactly what they want to say is a very empowering process. It is also strategic in terms of developing the parameters of the debate for the days to come. The two dialogue sessions were on:

A: Equitable Access and Sustainable Supply of Water for the Poor B: Strategies for Sustainable and Equitable Management of Water Resources (all documents are available on the web)

The dialogue sessions were followed by one and a half days devoted to debate within the three working groups tasked with looking at governance, mobilising financial resources and capacity development and sharing knowledge. Both the dialogue and the working group sessions depended on good and impartial facilitators. The information was used to prepare a new draft of the Recommendations for Action, which were then debated for nine hours in plenary with equal participation by the stakeholder groups and government.

OUR CRITICISMS

Whilst the stakeholders were supposedly on an equal footing, some are "more equal than others". When the USA argued, they were heard. Others were not. A number of key points put forward repeatedly by the NGO group are absent in the outcome document:

Access to Water is a human right Water is a common good World Commission on Dams recommendations should be adopted Water is not a tradable good.

Many of us went to Bonn quite cynically expecting that at best, lip service would be paid to participation and that at worst Bonn would just be a guise for the promotion of the private sector involvement in water delivery. We were wrong, and this was refreshing. The German Government, which hosted the Conference, illustrated their commitment to the process and thereby demonstrated that the different sectors can work together in a spirit of partnership.