World Water Day 2019

Voicing water visions in river basins across the developing world

Recent decades have witnessed important gains in the empowerment of women and marginalized people generally, leading to more inclusive governance of water resources, among other benefits. Yet, in many places, better water access and management remain beyond the reach of poor households, holding back their progress toward sustainable development.

Committed to “leaving no one behind” – the theme of World Water Day 2019 – we at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), leader of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), are engaged in a major effort to elucidate the obstacles to socially just water management. In river basins across Asia and Africa, we are leveraging this new knowledge to help develop and promote better policies and practices.

With the aim of demonstrating the urgency and value of such innovations, we are embarking this month on the Voicing Water Visions campaign. Through a thematic journey across selected river basins, the campaign will show what inclusive water governance really means for the people who have a direct stake in it. Their own voices, opinions and photos will make the issue literally “come alive,” in a call for renewed commitment to the collaborative search for solutions.

Voicing Water Visions

World Water Day 2019

Food for thought from Sri Lanka – Social inclusion in smallholder irrigation