DUPC2 ANNUAL REPORT | 2016DUP2 Annual Report 2016 iv The Asian deltas, including the Mekong delta, Ganges-Bramaputra delta, Irrawaddy delta and Ciliwung delta, and Colombia, and the

DGIS - IHE Delft Programmatic Cooperation June 2017Phase 2016 - 2020 (DUPC2)

IHE Delft Global Partnership for Water and Development

DUPC2ANNUAL REPORT | 2016

DUPC2 Annual Report 2016

Photos cover page; clockwise, starting in the upper left:

1. Participants of the training workshop ´Participatory Planning Tools for Strategic Delta Planning and Management´ in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam, October 2016 (NWO-UDW project, activity no. 37) (credits J. van der Stroom/TU Delft).

2. Bekaa Valley, Field day of water productivity training (Water Intelligence, activity no. 16) (credits J. van Opstal/IHE)

3. Peter Chege, one of VIA Waters project owners who cultivates vegetables in a very space and water efficient way (VIA Water, activity no. 19 & 40) (credits K van der Weerd/VIA Water)

4. A4Labs in Tekeze, Ethiopia: optimising access to and storage of shallow groundwater for prosperous agricultural production in arid areas. The picture shows the Edagabatat sand dam in Hawzen district, Ethiopia, constructed to increase storage in the alluvial aquifer (sandy river bed) for use in the dry season. Farmers abstract the water through shallow wells and small diesel pumps. They produce maize, vegetables and fruit trees (citrus, mango) (A4Labs, activity no. 8) (credits A. Duker/IHE Delft).


DGIS – IHE DELFT PROGRAMMATIC COOPERATION

Phase 2016 – 2020 (DUPC2)

Annual Report 2016 DGIS Activity no. 28325 / DME0121369

June 2017

IHE Delft Institute for Water Education

Dr. Wim Douven, DUPC Coordinator

P.O. Box 3015, 2601 DA Delft

The Netherlands

tel. +31-15-2151712

[email protected]

https://www.un-ihe.org/global-partnership-water-and-development

mailto:[email protected]://www.un-ihe.org/global-partnership-water-and-development


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Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. iii

1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Programme context ....................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 DUPC2 in brief ............................................................................................................................... 1

1.3 Content and structure of the Annual Report 2016 ....................................................................... 3

2 Overview Programme Activities ........................................................................................................... 5

3 Programme Activities by Theme and Region ....................................................................................... 9

3.1 Activities addressing ‘Efficient Water Management, particularly in the Agricultural Sector’ ...... 9

3.2 Activities addressing ‘Improved Catchment Area Management and Safe Deltas’ ..................... 13

3.3 Activities addressing ‘Access to Clean Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation’ ............................. 19

3.4 Activities addressing ‘Water Diplomacy’ ..................................................................................... 23

3.5 Activities addressing ‘Water Scarcity and Water related Problems related to the Refugee Crisis in the Middle East’ ............................................................................................................................. 26

3.6 Programme activities addressing all themes .............................................................................. 29

4 Progress on Programme Implementation and Results ...................................................................... 31

4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 31

4.2 Progress Education and Training, Research and Innovation and Knowledge sharing and Networks components ...................................................................................................................... 32

4.3 Progress Management and Learning component ....................................................................... 33

5 Programme Budget and Expenditures ............................................................................................... 37

References ............................................................................................................................................. 39

Appendix 1 Overview of all DUPC2 Activities ........................................................................................ 41

Appendix 2 Overview of all DUPC2 Activities: Financial data ............................................................... 49

Appendix 3 Overview of DUPC2 Partners ............................................................................................. 53

Appendix 4 Progress on Expenditure by Programme Results ............................................................... 59

Appendix 5 Progress on Achieving Programme Results ........................................................................ 62


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Executive Summary

Programme context The programmatic cooperation between the Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS) of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and IHE Delft1, also called the DGIS - IHE Delft Programmatic Cooperation (DUPC), has entered its second phase. December 2015 DGIS awarded a Grant of 24.145M Euro to IHE Delft for the second phase of the programmatic cooperation, also referred to as DUPC2, and registered at the Ministry under Activity Number no. 28325 / DME0121369. The basis for the allocation is a Grant Application by IHE Delft, dated 20 November 2015, which is the main reference for identifying activities. DUPC2 in brief The goal of DUPC2 is to provide tangible contributions to solving water and development challenges in southern and transition countries, by equipping people and organisations in partnership with partners from these countries. Sustained and strengthened partnerships, widening partnerships by also including civil society, NGOs, private sector and government, supporting water innovations, improved cohesion and synergy between activities at regional and thematic levels, and active communication to various audiences, are some of the principles through which the programme want to accomplish this; principles which are aligned with IHE Delft’s strategy. The goal of DUPC2 is supported by four inter-related programme components: Education and Training, Research and Innovation, Knowledge sharing and Networks, and Management and Learning. Each component consists of activities targeting the DUPC2 focus countries and regions and one or more of the focus themes which are closely linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals:

Efficient water management, particularly in the agricultural sector, Improved catchment area management and safe deltas, Access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation, and Water diplomacy.

DUPC2 pays specific attention to activities addressing water scarcity and water problems related to the refugee crisis in the Middle East. Cross-cutting agenda items are water governance, gender and inclusiveness and climate change. Overview programme activities DUPC2 started January 2016 and at the end of the first year 43 activities are identified, of which one is concluded as planned at the end of the year. The activities contribute to all programme components, especially Research and Innovation and Knowledge sharing and Networks but also Education and Training. The distribution of activities over the DUPC2 themes, shows that all themes are being addressed, including the cross-cutting themes. The 43 activities contribute to water and development challenges in around 30 developing and transition countries. From this list a number of regions and basins are emerging, including:

The Middle East (Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, and Westbank Aquifer and Jordan River Basin), and wider North-African region,

The Nile river basin, including the Eastern Nile, Mozambique, and the Zambezi River Basin,

1 In January 2017 the name of the Institute ‘UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education’ has changed to IHE Delft. The Institute entered into a partnership with UNESCO, prior to the proposed transition to a Category 2 Institute. In this document the new name will be applied, apart from references to documents produced before 2017.


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The Asian deltas, including the Mekong delta, Ganges-Bramaputra delta, Irrawaddy delta and Ciliwung delta, and

Colombia, and the Magdelena River Basin. The current activities are jointly implemented with 125 partners from 42 countries of which 28 southern and transition countries. The majority are knowledge institutions, but there is also substantial involvement of civil society, government and private sector partners. Around half of the 125 partners are partners with whom IHE Delft collaborates already over a longer time period. Progress on programme implementation and results The first year of DUPC2 implementation focussed on the organisational set-up of the programme, the identification of first activities through Calls, and communication of the programme to IHE Delft staff and our partners. Some of the observations and lessons learned include: The choice for a DUPC committee to serve as a sounding board and in particular on strategic issues

proves very valuable. In addition, the regional committee members given their knowledge of the regional needs and contexts prove key in supporting the programme such that it truly can achieve impact on the ground.

In response to the external reviewer’s recommendation, the programme pays strong attention to focus and synergy for impact, through Call guidelines, in-depth reviews, and additional programme support to projects and regional initiatives, which results already in a few focus regions emerging.

The programme spent considerable time on the identification of activities through Calls, external reviews, and recommendations to project teams. This is expected to pay off in the quality, demand-drivenness and local ownership of the activities, and hence in the ultimate impact.

Consequently, most activities were selected only half way the year, and started up towards the end of the second half which explains a lower than originally planned expenditure for this year.

Overall the progress of implementing the programme is considered as good. Points of attention are the Water Diplomacy theme which is a theme under development, the need for continued attention for external and internal communication, and for learning as a valuable approach to further improve the programme, as well as the added value of the partnership. Programme budget and expenditures The total amount of DUPC2 grants issued in 2016 was 13.7M Euro (most grants are multi-year commitments), and the actual expenditure 1.7M Euro. Table. Financial overview 2016 (in Euros).

DUPC2 component (logical framework)

DGIS approved budget DUPC2 (2016 - 2020) (1)

DUPC2 budget commitments (grants issued) (2)

DUPC2 expenditure IHE admin 2016 (3)

Balance in DUPC2 grant: expenditure (4)=(1)-(3)

Education and Training 3,750,000 1,261,686 109,817 3,640,183

Research and Innovation 9,949,626 6,646,828 792,717 9,156,909

Knowledge sharing and Networks 7,795,374 4,057,513 595,618 7,199,756

Management and Learning 1,600,000 1,600,000 222,185 1,377,815

Budget reservation (see Annual Plan 2017)

1,050,000 0 0 1,050,000

Total 24,145,000 13,566,027 1,720,337 22,424,663


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1 Introduction

1.1 Programme context

The programmatic cooperation between the Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS) of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and IHE Delft2, also called the DGIS - IHE Delft Programmatic Cooperation (DUPC), has entered its second phase. In December 2015 DGIS awarded a Grant of 24.145M Euro to IHE Delft for the second phase of the programmatic cooperation, also referred to as DUPC2, and registered at the Ministry under Activity Number 28325 / DME0121369. The basis for the allocation is a Grant Application by IHE Delft, dated 20 November 2015, which is the main reference for identifying activities3. This phase of the DGIS IHE Delft programmatic cooperation is referred to as DUPC2. Phase 1 of DUPC (2008-2018) (DGIS Activity 17133/DMW0107646) is reported separately.

1.2 DUPC2 in brief

The goal of DUPC2 is to provide tangible contributions to solving water and development challenges in southern and transition countries, by equipping people and organisations in partnership with partners from these countries. Sustained and strengthened partnerships, widening partnerships by also including civil society, NGOs, private sector and government, supporting water innovations, improved cohesion and synergy between activities at regional and thematic levels, and active communication to various audiences, are some of the principles through which the programme want to accomplish this; principles which are aligned with IHE Delft’s strategy 2015-2020. The goal of DUPC2 is supported by four inter-related programme components - Education and Training, Research and Innovation, Knowledge sharing and Networks, and Management and Learning - each having their own expected outputs and outcomes (Figure 1). Each component consists of activities targeting the DUPC2 focus countries and regions and one or more of the focus themes which are closely linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals:

Efficient water management, particularly in the agricultural sector (Water and food), Improved catchment area management and safe deltas (Rivers and deltas), Access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation (Water and sanitation), and Water diplomacy.

DUPC2 pays specific attention to activities addressing water scarcity and water problems related to the refugee crisis in the Middle East (Water scarcity Middle East). Cross-cutting agenda items are water governance, gender and inclusiveness and climate change. This DUPC2 approach guides the identification and implementation of activities, mainly identified through open Calls. DUPC2 is implemented by a management team which comprises of the DUPC coordinator and two programme support staff. A DUPC committee which consists of five IHE Delft staff members (including the DUPC coordinator) and four regional committee members representing Africa, Asia, Latin America and The Middle East provides strategic advice to DUPC.

2 In January 2017 the name of the Institute ‘UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education’ has changed to IHE Delft. The Institute entered into a partnership with UNESCO, prior to the proposed transition to a Category 2 Institute. In this document the new name will be applied, apart from references to documents produced before 2017. 3 Proposal DGIS UNESCO-IHE Programmatic Cooperation 2016-2020 - DUPC 2, Solving water and development challenges worldwide by equipping people and organisations and strengthening partnerships, UNESCO-IHE, 20 November 2015.


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A monitoring, evaluation and reporting (MER) protocol is applied, based on the programme’s Logical Framework which supports the monitoring of the implementation of the programme and of the achievement of the planned outputs and outcomes. Moreover, it contributes to internal learning amongst IHE Delft and partner organizations as a valuable approach to further improve the programme, as well as the added value of the partnership.

Figure 1. Overview of DUPC2: overall objective, components and results.


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1.3 Content and structure of the Annual Report 2016

This Annual Report presents the technical and financial information of the DUPC2 activities of 2016. The financial account is provided in the 2016 Financial Report Stichting IHE Delft. The structure of the Annual Report is as follows: Chapter 1 provides background information about DUPC2 and the context and structure of the report. Chapter 2 presents an overview of the programme activities in 2016. Chapter 3 presents the activities per DUPC theme, shows their location on maps, and highlights selected activities. An overview of the progress on programme implementation and on achievement of the programme results (Figure 1), is given in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 presents the summary overview of the finances of the programme. Appendix 1 presents technical details of the DUPC2 activities in 2016. Appendix 2 contains the financial data of these activities. Appendix 3 gives an overview of the 125 DUPC2 partners involved in the current activities. Appendices 4 and 5 presents the progress of the implementation of the programme by programme result: Appendix 4 on the expenditure by result and Appendix 5 on the achievement of the results so-far in relation to the planned targets.


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2 Overview Programme Activities

DUPC2 started January 2016 and at the end of the first year 43 activities are identified, of which one is concluded as planned at the end of the year. The total amount of the DUPC2 grants issued to support these activities is 13.7M Euro (most multi-year commitments), and the actual expenditure in 2016 is 1.7M Euro. As 2016 is the first year of DUPC2 implementation, expenditures are still low. Before presenting more details about the activities in Section 3, this section first gives an overview of the themes addressed, countries and regions targeted and partners involved.

Themes addressed The distribution of multi-year commitments and expenditure at the end of 2016 by DUPC2 themes is shown in Figure 2. Most activities are addressing multiple themes and for the purpose of this report it is assumed that these different themes are addressed equally. The figure shows that the water and food and water and sanitation themes have the highest budget commitments, and water scarcity Middle East the lowest4. All activities also address one or more of the DUPC2 cross-cutting themes: water governance, gender and inclusiveness

and climate change. Appendix 1 shows to which themes the activities contribute. Countries and regions emerging The 42 DUPC2 activities contribute to water and development challenges in around 30 developing and transition countries (see Map 1). From this list a number of regions and basins are emerging, including:

The Middle East (Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, and Westbank Aquifer, Jordan River Basin), The Nile river basin, including the Eastern Nile, Mozambique, and the Zambezi River Basin, The Asian deltas, including the Mekong delta, Ganges-Bramaputra delta, Irrawaddy delta and

Ciliwung delta, and Colombia, and the Magdelena River Basin.

Activities targeting Latin America & Caribbean and East Asia & Pacific show least commitments and expenditure, which also reflects the DUPC2 focus countries and regions (Figure 3). Type of projects As mentioned before DUPC2 consists of four components, and Figure 4 shows the financial break-down by component. The data show that most commitments made in 2016 are part of the research and innovation component, which is in line with the activities done in 2016 on identifying such projects. Second is the knowledge sharing and networks component. The education and training component had only one call for proposals, and will get more focus in 2017 and beyond.

4 This value is not a true representation of the importance of the theme. Projects that address this theme also address other themes. Figure 3 is a better representation of the DUPC2 activity in the Middle East region.

Figure 2. Grants issued and expenditure in 2016 by theme.

€- €2,000,000 €4,000,000

Water diplomacy

Water scarcity Midle East

Water and sanitation

Rivers and deltas

Water and food

2016 grants issued and expenditure by theme

DUPC2 expenditure IHE admin

DUPC2 budget commitments


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Our partners The current activities are jointly implemented with 125 partners from 42 countries of which 28 from southern and transition countries5 (see Figure 5). The majority are knowledge institutions (66), but there is also substantial involvement of civil society (28), government (18) and private sector partners (13). Around half of the 125 partners are partners with whom IHE Delft collaborated in the past years for instance through a joint educational programme or research activities or with whom we have a MoU. The other half are new partners and most of them are civil society, government and private sector type of partners. This is a result of the explicit request in the call guidelines to broaden the partnership to also other than academic partners in order to increase impact on the ground. Figure 5 presents the distribution of partners by region. A detailed overview of the partner by region and type is presented in Appendix 3.

5 European or other northern partners are in most cases not eligible to receive funds (except reimbursement of travel costs) since the support is aimed at southern partners.

Figure 4. Grants issued and expenditure in 2016 by programme component.

€- €4,000,000 €8,000,000

Research and innovantion

Managements and Learning

Knowledge sharing andNetworks

Education and Training

2016 grants issued and expenditure by components

DUPC2 expenditure IHE admin 2016

DUPC2 budget commitments (grants and contracts)

Figure 3. Grants issued and expenditure in 2016 by region.

€- €4,000,000 €8,000,000

East Asia & Pacific

Latin America & Caribbean

Middle East & North Africa

Sub Sahara Africa

World Wide

2016 grants issued and expenditure by region

DUPC2 expenditure IHE admin 2016

DUPC2 budget commitments (grants and contracts)

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

Australia

East Asia & Pacific

Eastern Europe

Latin America & Caribbean

Middle East & North Africa

South Asia

Sub Sahara Africa

USA and Canada

Western Europe

Partners by region and type

P - Private

K - Knowledge Institution

G - Government

C - Civil Society

Figure 5 Overview of DUPC2 partners by region and type.

13

10

24

13

13

8

38

311412 13

89

26

12

8

29

37 36

11

16 18

25

3637

13

14

23

37

9

21

17

Worldwide activities

63

2

4

7 48

22

27

28

47

32

51

6

Education & Training Research & Innovation Knowledge sharing & Networks

Regional activities

30

15

3

20

40

19

Map 1. Map of all ongoing and ended DUPC2 activities in 2016.


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3 Programme Activities by Theme and Region

In this chapter we present per theme a map with the activities addressing that theme. Each activity indicated on the map has a number, which links to the detailed activity overview of Appendices 1 and 2. Each activity addresses one or more themes, therefore some activities are indicated on more thanone map. Selected activities will be highlighted by short descriptions and stories in boxes. The activitiesmentioned in these boxes can also address other themes than the one where they are positioned inthe below sections. The choice for this structure of presenting the activities allows us to show thethematic and regional focus of the activities, and the focussed effort towards more impact on theground. DUPC2 is working towards presenting this information more dynamically on its website.

3.1 Activities addressing ‘Efficient Water Management, particularly in the Agricultural Sector’

The main goal of this theme is to reduce the knowledge gap to management of land and water resources for food and energy security in a sustainable and equitable way. Challenges relate to improving water productivity taking into account values beyond crop production, best ways to revitalize large-scale irrigation systems as well as to provide support to small-scale farmer-led irrigation development, and introducing water storage systems that are at the same time affordable and accessible and environmentally friendly. Information and the generation of knowledge related to the dynamics of water through the integration of information and communication technologies are key in supporting an improved management of land and water resources.

The 19 activities in 2016 addressing this theme are shown on Map 2. Further details on the activities are presented in Appendices 1 and 2. Appendix 1 shows that most activities also address other themes. Selected descriptions and stories of activities are presented in the boxes below.

Box 1. Water Accounting+ (activity no. 5)

The demand for more transparent information in water resources management decision making in water

basins is increasing. For example, donor agencies more often demand verifiable indicator information related

to the SDGs, rather than biased information from individuals who wish to execute new activities and

investments. Water accounting provides comprehensive information on the quantum and users of water

resources. The measurement and reporting

system is based on a coherent and consistent

methodology that quantifies hydrological and

water management processes.

The Global Water Accounting activity led by

IHE-Delft, FAO, WWAP, and IWMI which

started in 2014 aims to make neutral analyses

of the water accounts for some major river

basins located in the DUPC focus countries,

share the data with the governmental

agencies, and make water policy makers aware

of the opportunities and limitations of the

approach. The main input for the WA+

framework is satellite based. DUPC2 Water

Accounting for Larger River Basins is a

continuation of DUPC1. The analytic

framework for Water Accounting Plus (WA+) is

further improved, and first sheets were

Figure 1. Monthly Discharge in the Mara Basin for July

2007 (credits T. Hessels & W. Bastiaanssen (2016)/IHE

Delft)


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constructed for the Mara basin, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The materials gained are used for training and

educational purposes at IHE-Delft, and partner institutes involved.

The WA+ activity also provides a lot of

workshops and trainings in using satellites

measurements and creating those accounts.

Last year trainings were given in Vietnam,

Cambodia, India, Colombia, and Lebanon.

The basic principle of the Water Accounting

plus activity (WA+), is to integrate the latest

science of remote sensing, hydrology and

water management into very specific data

flows. More information can be found on the

Water Accounting website

(www.wateraccounting.org) or in the IHE

Delft’s online magazine that featured a story

on this topic.

Box 2. Activities in Mozambique

IHE Delft has a long standing history of collaboration with Mozambican partners dating back to the ‘80s.

including knowledge institutions, private sector parties, government organisation and NGO’s. IHE Delft is

involved in 15 activities in Mozambique, out of which the following seven are co-funded by DUPC2:

Arid African Alluvial Aquifers Labs securing water fordevelopment (A4Labs) (activity no. 8)

Enabling the assessment of alternative water supplysystems to promote urban water security in the GlobalSouth (alternative WSS) (activity no. 9)

Water Supply and Sanitation in Small Towns: the urban

rural intersection (SMALL) (activity no. 12)

Sustainable Hydropower and Multipurpose Storage to

meet Water, Food and Energy SDG's: a Program for

Collaborative Research and Innovation (S-MultiStor)

(activity no. 13)

Mitigating groundwater salinity impacts for improved

water security in coastal areas under socio-economic

and climate change (SALINPROVE) (activity no. 14)

UNHIDE Outreach – Public engagement through live

stories documentaries (activity no. 31)

Sustainable freshwater supply in urbanizing Maputo

(activity no. 38)

These activities are implemented with a range of partners:

from universities like the Eduardo Mondlane University

(UEM) in Maputo and research institutes like the Manhiça

Health Research Centre to government Institutions like the

National Directorate for the Management of Water Resources

(DNGRH) and the Ministry of Health to the Maputa and Beira

water companies and NGOs like OXFAM, UNICEF and Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP). IHE Delft

also has consolidated partnerships with a number of Dutch private professional companies with a base in

Mozambique like Royal HaskoningDHV and Vitens Evides.

Figure 2. Sheet 6: Groundwater calculation (source:

www.wateraccounting.org)

Figure. Cover of the IHE leaflet on activities in Mozambique (courtesy: Communication Department/IHE Delft)

http://www.wateraccounting.org/http://updatemagazine.unesco-ihe.org/#featurehttp://www.wateraccounting.org/


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The activities support three of the top five Mozambican Government priorities for the period 2015-2019 and

namely Priority 2 “Human and Social Capital Development”, Priority 3 “Promotion of employment,

productivity and competition” and Priority 5 “Sustainable and transparent management of natural resources

and the environment”. The activities address various DUPC2 themes like water supply and sanitation, water

for agriculture, water and health, delta management and sustainable hydropower.

Some of the activities focus on Mozambique only, other activities, like A4Labs and SALINPROVE also work in

other southern countries, further strengthening south-south collaboration.

13

10

13

13

8

12 13

89

12

8

16

25

13

9

17


63

Education & Training Research & Innovation Knowledge Sharing & Networks

Regional activities

5

Water and food

32

15

30

6

Map 2. Map of all ongoing and ended activities addressing ‘Efficient Water Management, particularly in the Agricultural Sector’ in 2016.


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3.2 Activities addressing ‘Improved Catchment Area Management and Safe Deltas’

Basin and delta systems often have a long history of civilization and socio-economic development and are currently under increasing pressure. The socio-ecological dynamics of these systems is central to this theme. Water availability and equitable allocation between users is one of the challenges, and the promoting of cooperation to prevent conflict over shared waters. Environmental concerns are another challenge including their interaction with the social and economic systems. Water-related hazards like floods, droughts, pollution and related issues, are expected to increase in frequency and intensity. A good understanding of these challenges, including the governance dimensions, and role of information and communication technologies are key for improved catchment area and delta management.


Box 3. Supporting delta management in Asian Deltas

Deltas worldwide face numerous challenges and enhanced capacities as well as improved approaches and

solutions are much needed. DUPC in partnership with local universities and civil society organisations has

always supported activities addressing this theme. Also in the current DUPC2 programme, various activities

focus on the Asian deltas. Lessons learned and material developed will be useful for other deltas as well.

Groundwater salinity is a major problem, and one of the research activities studies the impacts in coastal areas

under socio-economic and climate change, and how impacts can be mitigated for improved water security in

coastal areas (SALINPROVE) (activity no. 14). The activity focusses at the Mekong delta, as well as Great

Maputo Area (Mozambique) and Southern Coastal Zone of Laizhou Bay (China).

To improve flood risk management in urbanising deltas one of the activities supported by DUPC looks into the

interactions between hydrological (e.g. floods) and social (e.g. migration, urbanisation) processes (activity no.

36). The research has a specific focus on the vulnerability of the (peri) urban poor population. This is a co-

funded ‘NWO Urbanising Deltas of the World (UDW)’ activity.

To prepare for the future, deltas increasingly call for

strategic delta planning to make strategic and innovative

choices across sectors. Do these planning approaches live

up to their expectations, what is their role in enabling

change and innovation in water and environmental

management? In another DUPC co-funded NWO UDW

activity lessons will be drawn from Bangladesh, Vietnam

and the Netherlands (activity no. 37).

Basin developments, like hydropower, largely affect deltas,

in positive ways, but often also with considerable side

effects. How can sustainable hydropower and

multipurpose storage be organised to meet development

needs whilst reducing impact on local livelihoods and

environment? The S-MultiStor activity (activity no. 13)

addresses these questions. Apart from various other basins

and deltas, it focusses on the Irrawaddy river in Myanmar.

Capacity development is key. DUPC supports various innovative approaches under the delta theme including

city to city learning on climate adaptation in Vietnam (activity no. 23), and a professional training on

Figure. October 2016: participants of training workshop ´Participatory Planning Tools for Strategic Delta Planning and Management´, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (NWO- UDW project, activity no. 37)(credits J. van der Stroom/TU Delft)


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sustainable delta planning and management (activity no. 27). Both activities make use of insights of the above-

mentioned and other activities. Curriculum developed will be available via the DUPC2 website.

Dr. Pham Hong Nga of Thuyloi University, Vietnam is the regional DUPC committee member for Asia.

Box 4. Activities in the Nile River Basin

In 2016 three projects have been ongoing in the Nile basin focussing on inter-basin applied research and

communication amongst water professionals, media, and policy makers. In most projects there is a key role

for the Nile Basin Capacity Building Network (www.nbcbn.net) a strategic partner of IHE Delft. Financial

support for NBCBN will be gradually reduced (activity no. 3), and the network clearly shows its relevance and

capacity to attract its own funds.

In 2016 the NBCBN key results concerned the externally funded applied research project on valuating eco-

system services from wetlands and progress towards registration as an independent organisation. The NBCBN

network country-node representatives showed ownership by all coming to the 2016 steering committee

where registration of the network as an independent organisation was the main theme. In this way ten Nile

countries were represented, including South Sudan. The meeting is rotationally hosted and the 2016 edition

was held at the University of Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania. The meeting had as its main outcome a jointly

formulated and uniformly approved Constitution of the new Nile Basin Capacity Building Network to be

registered in Egypt.

2016 saw the successful finalisation of the 2-year applied research project on valuation of wetland eco-

systems in the Nile, coordinated by NBCBN and its Ugandan country-node Makerere University. Case studies

included Mara Wetland (Tanzania-Kenya),

Dinder Park (Sudan), Nakivubo Wetland

(Uganda), and Lake Burullus (Egypt).

Project information, publications, and

videos can be found on www.nile-eco-

vwu.net. In 2017 NBCBN will aim for

registration in Egypt, new applied research

on the Water scarcity Middle East theme,

and continuing its supporting role as

network of water professionals by

contributing to other DUPC2 projects in the

basin, Open Water Diplomacy Lab and

Nilewaterlab.org, presented below.

The Open Water Diplomacy Lab project

(activity no. 15) focusses on media, science

and transboundary cooperation in the Nile.

The project is conceived as a laboratory where water communicators and scientists from the Nile basin

countries engage in a process of common learning and co-production of knowledge on and for water

diplomacy. This action research is inter-disciplinary with IHE and NBCBN researchers from different

departments and disciplines, trans-national as water journalist will come from different Eastern Nile basin

countries, and co-creative as water scientists and journalists will engage in joint communication/research

projects on transboundary water issues, at the crossroad of different perspectives. The overall objective of

the project is to promote shared Nile narratives, based on accurately reported scientific data, trying to

overcome the mainstream discourse based on the national interest perspective. In 2016 four local researchers

were selected, one from Egypt, two from Ethiopia and one from Sudan. Also preparations were made for the

first workshop in Addis Ababa in January.

Figure. Field visit Nakivubo wetland for the Nile-Eco-VWU project (NBCBN, activity no. 3)(Courtesy www.nile-eco-vwu.net)

http://www.nbcbn.net/http://www.nile-eco-vwu.net/http://www.nile-eco-vwu.net/http://www.nile-eco-vwu.net/http://www.nile-eco-vwu.net/


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The Nilewaterlab.org project (activity no. 30) presents and brings into conversation multiple understandings

(maps, measurements, ethnographic studies, histories) of river basin development projects along the Nile with

the objective of allowing comparison between them, therewith opening up and substantiating debates

between policy makers, (future) water professionals, students and others interested. These different

understandings are presented on the web platform through photographs, stories, videos, and remote sensing

analyses (maps) that were gathered during eight years of field work on Nile projects by IHE-Delft and partners.

Since the launch the programme is used at workshops on the Nile in Khartoum, Addis Ababa and Cairo to

discuss water developments in the Nile basin. The platform was launched on 24 November. For more info

visit: http://nilewaterlab.org/

Box 5. Innovation in education – Graduate Professional Diploma Programme (GPDP)

The Graduate Professional Diploma Programme (GPDP) is a recent educational innovation that provides access

to education to professionals without the means, time or interest to pursue an MSc degree. A GPDP consists

of a sequence of four or five online courses, regular short courses or a combination. The online courses can

be followed part-time, without interrupting a day-time career. In order to ensure that the programme fits the

personal circumstances of the applicant, courses will be selected and a personal study plan will be designed

in collaboration with a study advisor. The total duration of the programme depends on this study plan, with a

minimum of 1.5 and a maximum of 4.5 years.

The first GPDP on the subject of sanitation and sanitary engineering knowledge was developed a few years

ago and co-funded by DUPC1 (https://www.un-ihe.org/graduate-professional-diploma-programme). The

programme attracts many applicants and therefore shows its relevance.

With the idea in mind to have a GPDP for each DUPC2 theme, IHE Delft started developing two new GPDPs

since 2016: one in the area of Water and Food (an activity under DUPC1, from 2017 onwards DUPC2), and one

in the area of Delta Planning and Management (activity no. 27). The Water and Food started under DUPC1 in

2015 and will continue under DUPC2 in 2017. The Delta Planning and Management GPDP is linked to the

initiative to develop a delta planning and management professional training amongst Dutch knowledge

Institutes under the flag of Delta Alliance (see http://www.delta-alliance.org/events/trainingdelta

planningmanagement). The DUPC contributions are used to develop a partnership component and involve

southern partners in these developments.

Figure. Introduction page of the Faecal Sludge Management course which is part of the GPDP on water and

sanitation made accessible in the Digital Learning Environment Moodle.

http://nilewaterlab.org/https://www.un-ihe.org/graduate-professional-diploma-programmehttp://www.delta-alliance.org/events/trainingdelta%20planningmanagementhttp://www.delta-alliance.org/events/trainingdelta%20planningmanagement


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Box 6. Activities in Colombia

IHE Delft has a long standing collaboration with Colombia. Prior to DUPC2, our activities included collaboration

with different universities, including Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and

our long-standing partner Universidad del Valle, as well as several regional and national water authorities such

as Regional Environmental Corporations and the Institute of Meteorological and Environmental Studies

(IDEAM). This collaboration has been strengthened and expanded with the three DUPC2 co-funded activities,

which were initiated in 2016. These focus on river basin management, sustainable hydropower and water and

sanitation. The activities also work with an expanded range of partners, including Universidad Antioquia,

Universidad del Norte and Universidad de los Andes, as well as sector specific research institutes such as the

Centro de Investigación de la Caña de Azúcar de Colombia (Cenicaña) and government organisations including

the Colombian National Planning Department to the Colombian National Business Association.

In recent years, Colombia has adopted a comprehensive set of water resources management policies. Lack of

data, knowledge and capacity, however, is often an impediment to the effective implementation of these

policies. The Evidence4Policy project (activity no. 10) aims to co-develop the scientific evidence-base that is

needed for the implementation of a sustainable water resources plan and policy. Together with water

management agencies, communities and partner knowledge institutes and universities, the project is

developing and validating methodologies for characterizing available water resources, and providing

guidelines on how these can then be used within the context of the relevant policies.

The S-MultiStor project focusses on sustainable hydropower (activity no. 13). The project aims to demonstrate

improved approaches to sustainable multipurpose storage, including both grey and green storage. It does so

by uniting leading initiatives, creating a common research and innovation platform to facilitate knowledge and

the improvement and integration of tools. With the Magdalena in Colombia the project also looks at the

Irrawaddy (Myanmar; Asia), and Zambezi (Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe; Africa) basins.

The ‘Golden Triangle Latin America - Sanitation learning alliance between Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil’

project is in the preparation phase. It is a project that aims to strengthen cooperation between the three

countries through intensive knowledge sharing and developing applied research to improve the situation in

each country.

The DUPC2-funded projects were featured during a poster presentation and thematic session at the

international Agua 2016 conference, 8-11 November in Cali, Colombia, coordinated by Carlos M. Madera from

Universidad del Valle who is the regional DUPC committee member for Latin America.

Figure 2. A banana washing and sorting plant at a

banana plantation in Apatadó, in the Urabá region in

Colombia. Washing bananas puts pressure on the

groundwater resources in the Urabá region, a case

study in the Evidence 4 Policy project.

(Evidence4Policy, activity no. 10)(credits: M.

Werner/IHE Delft)

Figure 1. Canal del Dique; lack of policy operation brings water quantity and quality problems to fishermen and farmers (Evidence4Policy, activity no. 10)(credits: L. Alfsonso/IHE Delft)


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In addition, the DUPC2 programme has been instrumental in strengthening the recently created Academic

Research Partnership Colombia-Netherlands (ARP). A Memorandum of Understanding was signed earlier in

2017 among four Universities in Colombia (Univalle, Uniandes, UniAntioqua and UniNorte) and four

Institutions in the Netherlands (IHE Delft, TU Delft, Wageningen University and Deltares). This partnership

aims to develop joint research projects in water, educational programmes and networking activities among

universities, institutions, governments and alumni.

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637 28

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Regional activities

Rivers and deltas

5

3

Map 3. Map of all ongoing and ended activities addressing ‘Improved Catchment Area Management and Safe Deltas’ in 2016.


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3.3 Activities addressing ‘Access to Clean Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation’

Increasing access to safe, sufficient and affordable water for people to meet needs for drinking, sanitation and hygiene is the aim of this theme. It addresses the entire water supply and sanitation chain, mainly within an urban and peri-urban context, including centralized and decentralized approaches, advanced and low-cost technologies, and engineered and natural systems. It focuses on knowledge and innovation to both help meet basic needs and support the development of water supply, wastewater treatment, and resource recovery systems that enable economic development. Together with the technological aspects of water supply, sanitation, and hygiene, the theme also addresses societal, economic and institutional aspects recognizing that technical solutions alone do not guarantee sustainable provision of water and sanitation.


Box 7. BEWOP (activity no. 4)

BEWOP Phase II is targeted towards the

development of guidelines, trainings and tools that

allow water operators to develop more effective

partnerships. In doing so, the BEWOP activity

provides a significant contribution to the DGIS

WASH Strategy 2016-2030. In the water supply

sector, water operator partnerships represent an

important instrument in implementing this

strategy. By developing more effective Water

Operator's Partnerships (WOPs), the activity

supports the development of this strategy.

In 2016 BEWOP2 completed the development of a series of tools, trainings and guidelines in order to facilitate

the effectiveness of WOPs. In the development of tools, guidelines and trainings staff of the water operators

will be directly involved in the design, development and implementation. This will ensure that the tools both

address a real demand as well as meet the needs of practitioners.

Tool Description Partners

Asset management EPANET-AM – a tool for enhancing discussion on investment planning and asset management among water utility managers

Vitens Evides International

QGIS Tool to set up and process distribution network information (this includes data collection and working with a EPANET-model).

Vitens Evides International National Water and Sewerage Corporation (Uganda)

Utility Management Simulation Game

This excel-based simulation game mimics decision-making of mangers in a water utility. The model is based on water provisioning in Lilongwe, Malawi


Water Safety Plans Role play to highlight importance of stakeholder participation in the development of water safety plans (which aim to ensure the safety of drinking water through the use of a comprehensive risk assessment and risk management approach).


Financing Water Services Simulation Game

Excel-based simulation game that lets participants analyze different financing options for large infrastructure investments and the financial consequences this has for the utilities financial sustainability.


Also in 2016, important steps were taken to link to the BEWOP2 activity to the WaterWorX programme

(http://www.vitensevidesinternational.com/waterworx/). This programme, which is a collaboration of 10

Dutch water utilities aims to increase sustainable access to drinking water to 10 million people by 2030

Figure. Testing of the Water Safety Plans Role Play (credits Giuliana Ferrero/IHE Delft).

Table. Tools developed in cooperation with water operators, to facilitate the effectiveness of WOPs

http://www.vitensevidesinternational.com/waterworx/


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through water operator partnerships. A detailed plan of cooperation framed in the form of a MoU between

IHE Delft and the WaterX programme is expected to be finalized in 2017.

Box 8. VIA Water (activities no. 19 and 40)

For VIA Water, the first half of 2016 was dominated by activating activity owners on sharing their knowledge

during the implementation of their activity. A Manual was drafted on how to do that and settled the

monitoring system to have an overview of the different media activity owners are using to tell their stories

and share their lessons learned. Furthermore, experience in 2016 shows that organising events IN the VIA

Water countries works best to start sharing and learning. A well-functioning Community is a combination of

online and live activities. To improve the quality of

activity proposals, knowledge exchange and

training activities are essential. In 2016, VIA Water

organised: Learning Tours in three countries, a

Knock-Out Competition in Mozambique to guide

activity ideas to full development, field visits,

webinars, an Innovation Challenge, a toolkit on

proposal writing and a very successful Sharing Skills

Seminar in Nairobi for all activity owners (28

participants from nine countries). Furthermore, a

paper on VIA Water was published in the Journal of

Cleaner Production, a paper got accepted for the

FSM4 Conference in Chennai, India (February 2017)

and the process of hiring a post doc researcher for

the programme started. All these activities have led

directly to more and higher quality proposals, to

more knowledge exchange and monitoring the

current activities. As for new activities (of which the fund management is outsourced to Aqua for All), activities

in 2016 resulted in 207 new teasers/concept notes. 21 of them reached the contract stage in 2016 (seven in

2015).

Box 9. Education in Bénin (activity no. 24)

Whilst Benin has adequate water resources, the combination of unsustainable agricultural practices, poor

water management and climate change, means that it is confronted with increasing water shortages, urban

water pollution and damage from flooding. As such, Benin has a long way to go in order to reach the UN

Sustainable Development Goals. This large undertaking not only requires the installation of necessary

infrastructure, but also the strengthening of local water knowledge and capacity. The Government of Benin

together with the national university, Universite Abomey-Calavi, has therefore taken the initiative to start a

new National Water Institute (INE) as the country's central knowledge institute for water research and

education.

INE offers three MSc programmes and requested assistance to improve the curricula and mainstream English

of its students. Their goal is to increase the accessibility of education and to work towards a joint MSc

programme on Adaptive Delta Planning on the medium term. This activity therefore works on enhancing the

quality of education on water and sanitation at INE and boost the internationalisation of the MSc programmes.

Equal access to education and research at the National Water Institute (INE) in Bénin is an important issue

that needs to be addressed by taking gender and diversity into account.

This 3 year activity will address the needs of the National Water Institute by: (1) evaluating recommendations

of previous capacity development activities (2) evaluating the implementation of these recommendations at

INE and addressing the gaps (3) providing a didactic training to junior and senior staff of the four MSc

programmes, taking into account gender and diversity (4) educating staff in academic English and

Figure. Trust-exercise with blindfolding and guiding someone during the Sharing Skills Seminar of VIA Water - November 2016, Kenya (credits K van der Weerd/VIA water).


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mainstreaming academic English in education, and (5) development of a roadmap towards the

implementation of a joint MSc programme on Adaptive Delta Planning and Management, taking into account

the needs of the public and private sector at the local regional and international level.

In 2016 the activity started with revisiting results of previous activities (e.g. NPT, NICHE) that evaluated the

MSc programmes on water and sanitation at the University of Abomey-Calavi. On the one hand, conclusions

and recommendations of these activities can help us focussing our activities and building upon what has been

done before. On the other hand, these conclusions and recommendations also need to be adapted to the

current context where those MSc programmes on water are now integrated in the National Water Institute

(INE). Special attention will be paid to recommendations on gender and diversity.

24

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63286


Regional activities

4

Water and sanitation

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Map 4. Map of all ongoing and ended activities addressing ‘Access to Clean Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation’ in 2016.


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3.4 Activities addressing ‘Water Diplomacy’

Water diplomacy goes beyond cooperation over water, as it is more broadly concerned with improved regional security and stability, improved trade relations and regional integration. Water diplomacy thus has the potential to promote geopolitical relations between countries sharing a water resource. Water diplomacy can be successful in situations where it is recognized that non-collaboration results in a worse outcome for all. Water diplomacy is associated with water governance that seeks to analyse and improve institutional arrangements and decision making processes related to water. For water diplomacy and water governance spatially explicit information about current and future availability and use of water resources can be important, as well as the linkages with related sectors, such as food, energy, transport and trade.

The 10 activities in 2016 addressing this theme are shown on Map 5. Further details on the activities are presented in Appendices 1 and 2. Appendix 1 shows that most activities also address other themes. Information on the activities in 2016 is presented in the box below.

Box 10. Water Diplomacy activities

Water diplomacy is one of the strategic areas addressing and resolving water problems worldwide. The

Netherlands is profiling itself as a key player in this area. IHE Delft, with its broad and rich in-house expertise

of water diplomacy related subjects, and its partners and networks, wishes to contribute to this area. This

effort is in part, supported by earmarked DUPC2 funds. As water diplomacy is an emerging and growing area

at IHE Delft, discussions on the specific objectives are still on-going. Also, the final DUPC2 water diplomacy

agenda and portfolio of activities is not yet fully articulated. However, by the end of 2016, the Institute has

made significant steps towards formulating a comprehensive and coherent agenda, with the understanding

that this will be an ongoing process. UNESCO-IHE is working on bringing together its many disciplines and

areas of focus to create a unique platform to approach water diplomacy. Amongst other things, it suggests a

systems perspective approach based on international law, governance, negotiations, river basin management

simulations, modelling, and natural- and engineering sciences. Serving diplomatic and political processes, this

systems perspective supports the identification and development from available hydrological and river basin

management instruments those that will enable stakeholders beyond the water sector to deal with the issues

raised by water diplomacy. The capacity to work on water diplomacy at the Institute will be increased in 2017

with a junior lecturer in water diplomacy and an associate professor.

The water diplomacy activities under DUPC2 are crosscutting throughout the different programme

components and include education, training and research activities, and joint activities with SIWI and WWF.

The education activities undertaken relate to the Water Cooperation and Diplomacy programme offered

jointly with the University for Peace in Costa Rica and Oregon State University in the US. DUPC2 funding was

made available to train qualified and motivated staff members from selected partner institutions in the Global

South in the field of water diplomacy by participating in the WCD programme. One representative from the

University of Khartoum in Sudan was selected as well as one from the University of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

Partial funding had already been made available in 2015 for this activity, which continued in 2016 and

expected is that it will be completed with the graduation of both participants in June 2017. The next phase of

the project, scheduled for 2017, is thus about to start, which is to work with the home institutions of both

graduates to enhance their academic capacity in relation to water diplomacy.

Further capacity building achievements under the 2016 plan, included different training scheduled throughout

the year. The first workshop was organised in Khartoum in March 2016 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

which brought together EU diplomats under the heading “Towards a better understanding of the socio-

economic dynamics of the Eastern Nile and its transboundary challenges: potential roles of the EU”. Another

training took place in Palestine in November 2016 which trained Palestinian civil servants to enhance their

capacity in water related negotiations to deal effectively with counterparts in order to have a direct impact

on the ground. The pilot was deemed a success by the participants and the trainers. In December 2016 IHE


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Delft organised a second workshop on “Preventive diplomacy for transboundary water management with a

focus on Central Asia”. Part of the funding was also provided by Rotary International.

A number of research projects have been initiated in 2016 who address – not exclusively - the water diplomacy

theme. Projects include:

Open Water Diplomacy Lab (activity no. 15) (see Box 4)

KidronNar: decentralized local solutions for wastewater treatment and reuse (activity no. 11) (see Box 11)

SCARCE: desalination, diplomacy, and water reuse in Middle East (activity no. 17) (see Box 11)

CONNECT: connecting water scarcity professionals from MENA region (activity no. 20) (see Box 11)

Tekezze-Atbara sub-basin: Transboundary water management in the Nile (activity in preparation phase

in 2016)

The water and peace seminar, which is an annual event under the DUPC2 umbrella, was not held this year as

a suitable timing was not identified and capacity to organise it was limited.

Joint activities were carried out with SIWI throughout the year: a joint proposal was developed for the MENA

region on water diplomacy and capacity building programs; the co-authored work on the Lower Jordan basin

(Governance structures for transboundary water management in the Jordan Basin) was presented at the

World Water Week in Stockholm and at a conference in Jordan in November, contributions to the Central Asia

workshop mentioned above, and to a stakeholder mapping exercise in the Mekong conducted in the

framework of SIWI’s Shared Water Partnership programme.

WWF activities in relation to the promotion of universal international water law instruments were conducted

throughout the year. This included a regional workshop in Mexico, regional seminar in Uganda, and assistance

to Ghana, Paraguay, Tanzania and Gambia. This is work that takes time to convert into concrete results though

WWF indicated that the adoption of the SDGs has created momentum for its work.

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Regional activities

Water diplomacy

1 2 4847

30

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Map 5. Map of all ongoing and ended activities addressing ‘Water Diplomacy’ in 2016.


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3.5 Activities addressing ‘Water Scarcity and Water related Problems related to the Refugee Crisis in the Middle East’

Capacity development in migration important countries in particular in the Middle East region is essential to address and solve the water scarcity problems and mismanagement of water in agriculture, which are seen as one of the key causes of instability and migration. This theme responds to these needs by strengthening capacities to address the water scarcity issues and water problems related to the current refugee crisis. The long-standing partnerships with Middle East academic and government partners allows IHE Delft to quickly respond. The theme focusses on the following three areas:

Addressing water scarcity by improved planning and management, including governance Reducing water scarcity by efficient water use, re-use of wastewater and desalinisation of

brackish and sea water. Improving WASH for urban settings under stress of migrants

The 8 activities in 2016 addressing this theme are shown on Map 6. Further details on the activities are presented in Appendices 1 and 2. Appendix 1 shows that most activities also address other themes. Information on the activities in 2016 is presented in the box below.

Box 11. Activities addressing water scarcity in the Middle East.

In the Middle East there is a severe water scarcity problem caused by limited fresh water resources, and

pollution of existing water resources making it unsuitable for use. The social impact of the water scarcity

problem has reached new levels with the growth of the refugee population from the Syrian crisis, thereby

increasing demands on the limited water resources. Based on the note ‘Contribution of the DUPC2 program

to solve water scarcity and water problems related to the refugee crises in the Middle East’ developed early

2017, DUPC2 has initiated five activities in the Middle East for addressing water scarcity issues:

KidronNar: decentralized local solutions for wastewater treatment and reuse (Palestine, Israel) (activity

no. 11)

Water Intelligence (WIN): water accounting and water productivity data and training (Lebanon) (activity

no. 16)

SCARCE: desalination, diplomacy, and water reuse in Middle East (Jordan) (activity no. 17)

Microwave Faecal Sludge Treatment (Jordan) (activity no. 18)

CONNECT: connecting water scarcity professionals from MENA region (incl. Nile Basin) (activity no. 20)

The objective of these activities is to support local water sector organizations to deal with the current water

issues and the refugee crisis. The activities have a focus on technology and knowledge transfer through

training events. The training events will be divided in training of trainers (or technical staff) and training of

users, which are the decision-makers and water managers. The content of the activities are adapted to local

demands using feedback from local stakeholders during an inception workshop in Summer/Fall 2016. These

inception workshops took place at an early stage of the activity proposal development, increasing the

potential for activity activities to be both relevant and doable in local circumstances.

Collaboration and close working relationships are established with local entities such as universities, research

institutes, river and water utility authorities, and others. Integration of the different activities and knowledge

exchange between the countries is of importance for all activities and especially key for the CONNECT activity,

which brings professionals together in different workshops.

Integration activities

The Middle East activities are five individual activities, but all active in the same region. Therefore synergies

are sought where possible between the activities. This is done by defining integration aspects of the activities,

reported in a note written in 2016 (after the inception of the activities). Since the inception of the activities,


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monthly progress meetings are scheduled for updating on activities and discussing joint activities. One

example of a joint activity for which preparations were made in 2016, is the participation in the Arab Water

Week 2017, which is a large regional event. It presents a good opportunity to showcase some of the DUPC2

activities.

Another integration aspect is the production of a brochure which gives an overview of the different activities

active in the region. This brochure focuses mainly on the five activities mentioned above, but also displays

other activities that are smaller or just starting in the region.

The activities of DUPC2 in the Middle East has also given opportunity for new activities, or collaborating with

activities who do similar work. The regional DUPC committee member Dr. Naser Almanaseer of Al-Balqa'

Applied University in Jordan plays a key role in these processes, as well as the Dutch Embassy in Amman.

See for more information: https://www.un-ihe.org/water-scarcity-middle-east

Figure 1. Construction of a decentralised wastewater treatment plant for a school in Ubadiyah, West-Bank/Palestine, which will serve as a research and demonstration site (KidronNar, activity no. 11) (courtesy; Municipality of Ubadiya and Amuta Foundation).

Figure 2. Participants of Training Water Productivity, Lebanon (Water Intelligence, activity no. 16)(credits J. van Opstal/IHE)

https://www.un-ihe.org/water-scarcity-middle-east

29

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Regional activities

Water scarcity in the Middle East

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Map 6. Map of ongoing and ended activities addressing ‘Water Scarcity and Water related Problems related to the Refugee Crisis in the Middle East’ in 2016.


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3.6 Programme activities addressing all themes

In this section we present those activities which cannot be directly related to a main theme, but which actually address all themes. The majority of these activities is part of the knowledge sharing and networks component, and have a function to support education and training and research and innovation activities, or help outreach activities and their outputs. Examples are the regional networks WaterNet and the Nile Basin Capacity Building Network (NBCBN), the short course H2Online and the Spatial data Infrastructure project (SDI). These activities are all displayed on the maps in the previous sections.

Box 12. Waternet (activity no. 6)

Aim of this activity is to establish a fully functional, sustainable and independent network, diversifying funds

and securing the next phase of WaterNet activities. This activity has started in August 2013 and since then

several missions have taken place amongst others to assist WaterNet with setting up a sound financial

management system in order to phase out the activities of KPMG in the financial administration, which was

successfully accomplished per January 2014. Other missions focused on developing an effective

communication strategy for within the network as well as with external parties, which was operationalized in

2015 including the launch of a new interactive website. With support of this activity an extensive alumni tracer

survey was carried out in which not only WaterNet graduates were interviewed on the relevance of the

regional IWRM Master programme but also their employers. This survey has been essential to establish the

impact of WaterNet on the water sector in the Southern African region as well as serves as an important input

to further improve the educational programmes offered by the WaterNet network. The activity mainly focused

during the second half of 2015 on the development of a sound and sustainable funding strategy for WaterNet

during Phase IV (2017-2020). This has resulted in 2016 in commitments from various funding agencies (e.g.

DGIS, GTZ, DFID, SADC Member States) to fund WaterNet activities and in this way the funding sources of

WaterNet have been diversified and financial sustainability is achieved for the coming years. In December

2016 the WaterNet manager and financial accountant as well as a WaterNet member have followed a tailor-

made training at UNESCO-IHE on strategy development for financial sustainability to further strengthen their

capacity in fund raising to ensure a prospers future.

http://www.waternetonline.org/

To read an interview with WaterNet's programme manager Jean-Marie Kileshye-Onema, see IHE’s highlight

booklet, page 29. Jean-Marie Kileshye-Onema is also the regional DUPC committee member for Africa.

Box 13. H2Online (activity no. 63)

This online course, which was delivered in the period February – May 2016, represents a modified version of

the online course delivered in 2013 and 2014 .The overall aim of the course was to provide participants applied

knowledge and skills to deal with global water challenges and to highlight Dutch experience and possible

contributions in dealing with these challenges. The course also allowed for participants to map major

stakeholders in the water sector and to develop a network of water experts for future activities. The online

course was designed for professionals in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Hague, Dutch Agencies (such as

RVO), employees of Foreign Affairs working abroad whose work touches upon water issues and possibly

employees of other donor‐countries interested in water issues. Also a large group of Young Expert Programme

participants joined the course. In total 130 people participated in the course, of which 50 applied for the

certificate programme (of which 25 finalized the certificate assignment). The course was evaluated with a

score of 8.1 by 37 participants.

Impact on the ground

The online course supported the participants in their understanding of various elements of water

management and the related Dutch international policies. This helps them in doing their day‐to‐day work for

http://www.waternetonline.org/https://www.un-ihe.org/sites/default/files/highlights_2016_i_0.pdfhttps://www.un-ihe.org/sites/default/files/highlights_2016_i_0.pdf


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the ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassies of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, or partner agencies in

international cooperation (RVO, NGOs), as many are not considered to be water experts, but are dealing with

international water policies/activities. The videos and online platform also provided an overview of the Dutch

(public and private) water sector to inform the participants on who is who in the Dutch water sector. The

certificate assignment enabled the participants to deepen their knowledge and extent their network with

people an interest in the same water issue: delta management, food security, WASH, transboundary water

governance.

The Curatr platform on which the course was hosted has been taken offline (due to security issues), but the

course videos and webinars have been made available on: https://vimeopro.com/user28384382/h2online

The course is continued to be open for application: https://www.academieinternationalebetrekkingen.nl/

nl/Leeractiviteiten/Opleiding+details+en+evenementen?course=86297109-4cdb-4c3d-b577-

e96d4c5015ea#Evenement|Omschrijving

https://vimeopro.com/user28384382/h2onlinehttps://www.academieinternationalebetrekkingen.nl/%20nl/Leeractiviteiten/Opleiding+details+en+evenementen?course=86297109-4cdb-4c3d-b577-e96d4c5015ea#Evenement|Omschrijvinghttps://www.academieinternationalebetrekkingen.nl/%20nl/Leeractiviteiten/Opleiding+details+en+evenementen?course=86297109-4cdb-4c3d-b577-e96d4c5015ea#Evenement|Omschrijvinghttps://www.academieinternationalebetrekkingen.nl/%20nl/Leeractiviteiten/Opleiding+details+en+evenementen?course=86297109-4cdb-4c3d-b577-e96d4c5015ea#Evenement|Omschrijving


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4 Progress on Programme Implementation and Results

4.1 Introduction

The first year of DUPC2 implementation mainly focussed on the organisational set-up of the programme, the identification of first activities through Calls, and communication of the programme to IHE Delft staff and our partners. The first external review of DUPC2 took place in October 2016 and provided valuable recommendations for programme management and implementation1. Some of the observations from this first year of implementation and lessons learned include:

The choice for a DUPC committee to serve as a sounding board and in particular on strategic issuesproves very valuable. In addition, the regional committee members given their knowledge of theregional needs and contexts prove key in supporting the programme such that it truly can achieveimpact on the ground.

In response to the external reviewer’s recommendation, the programme pays strong attention tofocus and synergy for impact, through Call guidelines, in-depth reviews, and additional programmesupport to projects and regional initiatives, which results already in a few focus regions emerging.The September external review observed that ‘a genuine effort is made on recommended issueslike synergies, coherence and focus, with a positive effect on efficiency and effectiveness’.

The programme spent considerable time on the identification of activities through Calls, externalreviews, and recommendations to project teams. This was a time investment, but is expected topay off in the quality, demand-drivenness and local ownership of the activities, and hence in theultimate impact.

Consequently, most activities were selected only half way the year, and started up towards theend of the second half which explains a lower than originally planned expenditure for this year aspointed out in Section 2. See table 1 for an overview of the status of the project by the end ofDecember 2016.

The programme institutionalised DUPC implementation as far as possible within IHE Delft, withstrong involvement of IHE Delft support departments, which should also contribute to synergywith other activities in the institute.

Table 1. DUPC2 project status on 31 December 20162.

Component # ongoing projects (RUN)

# projects in pipeline (PIP)

# projects in prepa-ration (PRO)

# projects ended (END)

# projects rejected (REJ)

Total

Education and Training 9 3 3 15

Research and Innovation 20 6 3 17

Knowledge sharing and Networks

10 3 3 1 3

Management and Learning 3 0 0 1 30

Total 42 12 9 1 1 65

Overall the progress of implementing the programme is considered as good. Points of attention are the Water Diplomacy theme which is a theme under development, the need for continued attention

1 Final Report External Monitoring DGIS UNESCO-IHE Programmatic Cooperation (DUPC2), 4 January 2017 2 DUPC makes a distinction between ongoing projects (RUN; projects having a grant allocated and a project number), projects in the pipeline (PIP; in preparation phase, not yet a grant allocated), projects planned (PRO; prospects), and projects closed (END).


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for external and internal communication, and for learning as a valuable approach to further improve the programme, as well as the added value of the partnership.

In the remainder of this section we will report on the progress of implementing DUPC2 for each of the four programme components. Details on budget committed and expenditure per programme result are presented in Appendix 4. Progress on the achievement of the results is shown in Appendix 5.

4.2 Progress Education and Training, Research and Innovation and Knowledge sharing and Networks components

Education and Training

This programme component aims at enhancing the quality of problem-oriented water and development education and training at partner institutes, including joint programmes, increase their accessibility for larger audiences, and upscale successful delivery models. For the first year of implementation of DUPC2 the aim was to start-up the education and training activities which were already identified in the DUPC2 grant document, and to identify a first series of new activities through an open Call. Part of the first category is the educational innovation through the Graduate Professional Diploma Programmes on 'Delta planning and management' and on 'Water for food' (see Box 5), and the new joint MSc programme 'Water Cooperation and Diplomacy' (see Box 10). A Call for education and training proposals, externally reviewed, resulted in eight new activities which started at the end of 2016. For 2017 additional calls for education and training activities are planned, and based on identified activities a review of the component’s indicators and targets set.

Research and Innovation

A large part of the programme support in 2016 was devoted to starting up activities under the research and innovation component. The component aims at conducting problem-oriented research jointly with partner institutes in support of development goals for environment and water supporting social and technological innovations and targeted to agents of change. In total three open Calls were launched: a Call to attract Research for Development proposals in March 2016, a Research Outreach Call in June 2016, and a South-South Research Collaboration Call in September 2016. The Calls attracted substantial applications which were externally reviewed on the criteria set in the Call guidelines. To identify activities addressing water scarcity in the Middle East a different approach was followed. In close interaction with IHE staff involved in the region, key partners in the region and DGIS a note was developed, which served as a framework to identify activities. These careful processes of identifying activities, also with close involvement of the regional DUPC committee members, results in activities which are demand-driven and locally owned, but also in starting dates of activities only towards the end of 2016. To support the selected activities in achieving and capturing societal impact the programme organised a successful research impact workshop in September (see Box 15). The Secretariat VIA Water programme is a DUPC funded activity that started under DUPC1 and continues under DUPC2 until the end of 2017 (see Box 8). The activity supports water innovation in Africa, and contributed to the review of DUPC2 proposals as well as the above-mentioned impact workshop.

Knowledge sharing and Networks

This third programme component aims to improve access to and sharing of gained knowledge and experiences, at the level of focus themes and regions and higher, and support the role of the Global Partnership and related regional networks. The component consists of five results (Figure 1). Most activities started up in 2016 or continued from DUPC1 and were already identified in the DUPC2 grant. In 2016 no regional events have been held as most research and innovation activities just started up. First events are foreseen in 2017, including a water diplomacy seminar (result 1). The three activities


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that contribute to result 2 - Open Course Ware, TheWaterChannel, and Spatial Data Infrastructure - were also part of DUPC1. Open Course Ware is an ongoing activity which is still using 2016 DUPC1 funds, and will start using DUPC2 funds in 2017. A workplan and contract for TheWaterChannel was finalised early 2017. The Spatial Data Infrastructure activity is ongoing, but has so far limited contribution to the overall component goal, as most research and innovation activities just started up. Result 3 consists of various activities. An activity that is funded under the result ‘Knowledge sharing with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ is the VIA Water post-doc who studies successful innovation across the VIA water cases (Box 8), and the H2Online course (Box 13). The support of regional cooperation on water (the SIWI - IHE Delft cooperation) and the support to the implementation of the UN Watercourses Convention are ongoing projects part of the water diplomacy theme (Box 10). Also the Water Accounting+ activity is ongoing (Box 1). Result 4 ‘networks and partnerships supported’ is supported by three ongoing activities in 2016: NBCBN (Box 4), WaterNet (Box 12) and the BEWOP activity (Boosting Effectiveness of Water Operator's Partnerships) (Box 7). The use of the facility to strengthen the IHE Delft Global Partnership supported (Result 5) will be further detailed in a partnership note currently under development (June 2017).

4.3 Progress Management and Learning component

The fourth component of the programme is a supportive one, and aims at adequately managing and communicating the DUPC programme, and promote internal learning amongst partner organisations. We will discuss progress towards the three programme results. Programme Management and Organisation (Result 1) In the first half of 2016 the organisation of the programme has been set-up with a programme management team (Wim Douven, Mita Kusumaningrum and Nadine Sander) and a DUPC committee consisting of IHE staff members and three regional committee members for advice and recommendations (Box 14). A very fruitful inception meeting was held April 2016, and since then the committee meets regularly by Skype. A major effort was done to better integrate DUPC in IHE’s supporting departments. An example is the new technical and financial database of DUPC2 which is aligned with the IHE Delft administrative systems, including a partner database. Box 14. DUPC committee members 1.

Carolien Jaspers, Liaison Officer EU Relations, IHE Delft

Dr. Carlos M. Madera, Associate Professor Sanitary Engineering, Universidad del Valle, Colombia

Prof. Chris Zevenbergen, Professor of Flood Resilience of Urban Systems, IHE Delft

Dr. Jean-Marie Onema, WaterNet manager, Southern Africa

Dr. Martin Mulenga, Senior Lecturer in Sanitation/Sanitary Engineering, IHE Delft

Dr. Michelle Kooy, Senior Lecturer in Water Governance, IHE Delft

Dr. Pham Hong Nga, Head of International Cooperation Office / Lecturer, Thuyloi University, Vietnam

Dr. Wim Douven, Associate Professor River Basin Management and DUPC2 programme coordinator

A smooth t

Documents

DUPC2 ANNUAL REPORT | 2016DUP2 Annual Report 2016 iv The Asian deltas, including the Mekong delta, Ganges-Bramaputra delta, Irrawaddy delta and Ciliwung delta, and Colombia, and the