IFAD Workshop on: “Balancing Hardware with Software for Sustainable Agricultural Water management”

Rome, 18 April 2011

Contribution to the discussion by Jan Luijendijk

Vision & Mission

UNESCO-IHE envisions a world in which people manage their water and environmental resources in a sustainable manner, and in which all sectors of society can enjoy the benefits of basic services.

Mission of the Institute is to contribute to the education and training of professionals and to build the capacity of sector organisations and knowledge centres in the fields of water, the environment and infrastructure, in developing countries and countries in transition.

Importance of Knowledge and Capacity

• We are living now in a Knowledge Society

• The need for knowledge and know-how is rapidly changing as well: both in quantity and in content

• As a consequence: Information and knowledge have become crucial factors in the performance and effectiveness of individuals and organisations.

• Developing countries have insufficient human and institutional capacity in professional organizations to fully participate in the knowledge society.

• KM and CD are in fact two sides of the same coin

KnowledgeExplicit Knowledge:Knowledge (Information) stored in:• papers, reports, books, CD-Rom’s,• (grey) literature, Models, Technologies

Implicit Knowledge = Tacit Knowledge: • Knowledge in people

Knowledge Management:• KM: “Creating a learning organization in which everyone

is stimulated to handle his/her personal knowledge with care, and share his/her knowledge.”

Capacity Development• Capacity development:

is the process by which individuals, organizations, institutions and societies develop abilities (individually and collectively) to perform functions, solve problems and set and achieve objectives. (Lopes and Theisohn,1997)

• CD is aimed at solving problems and improving performance. If problems and challenges change, so does the required capacity.

• Capacity Development involves concerted efforts at multiple levels

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INDIVIDUAL

ORGANIZATION

ENABLING ENVIRONMENT

Knowledge & Capacity Dev Knowledge and Capacity Outcome

Factual knowledgeUnderstanding

SkillsAttitudes

Explicit Knowledge:Training

EducationTacit Knowledge:Apprenticeship

Peer learningLearning-by-doing

Political prioritiesPolicies

Regulatory framePublic administration

Fiscal frameAccountability

StrategiesHuman Resources Management Pol

Administrative procedureBudget frame

Accountability frameSystem to learn lessons

Change managementTech advice on structure,

mgmt, & incentivesHuman Resources Dev.

Peer learningLearning-by-doing

Networking

PressTechnical advice

DialoguePeer learning

Learning-by-doing

KNOWLEDGEUNDERSTANDING

SKILLSATTITUDES

ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

“CONDUCIVENESS”GOOD GOVERNANCE

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=>>SECTOR

PERFORMANCE

Indicator/ Attribute

Competences of the individual and the organization:

1. Technical 2. Managerial 3. On governance4. For continual learning and innovation

CIVIL SOCIETYWater “literacy”

Social/indigenous capitalCulture

Awareness raisingMass communication

Learning-by-doing

Framework for Capacity development

(Alaerts and Kaspersma, 2010)

Balancing H:S (1)Some considerations/questions:• The need for Capacity Development in the water sector is increasing because

of new challenges, like• Population growth and urbanization• Climate change

• Many countries are in a process of water sector reform adopting IWRM and changing the paradigm (from a focus on development to management and from specific users to multiple users)

• As a consequence:- more involvement of multiple stakeholders- increase in complexity of the problems- Need for new knowledge and skills of all actors involved

Balancing H:S (2)Some considerations/questions:• Capacity Development is becoming more diverse.

In the past: Capacity building was mainly training;

In the future: Based on a capacity building needs analysis a well-balanced set of CB measures and interventions should be implemented. Case Indonesia: (request for staff training)

– No HRM policy– Staff not qualified– No HRD unit in place– Tasks organization unclear– Water Law is too vague and not enough elaborated

• It’s all about learning: individual, organizational and social

Balancing H:S (2)Some considerations/questions:• How do we define the S-component?

In the past: focus on H-implementation. Standard 2- 5% of investments spent on CB activities (mostly training);

In the future? focus on an inclusive design and formulation process, maximum performance and sustainability. It includes all activities needed to build the capacity of different actors involved to realize an optimal H-investment.

Criteria: include knowledge of relevant stakeholdersmaximize relevance/effectivenessoptimize cost-benefit/efficiencymaximize sustainability/ownership

• The S-component comprises all KCD activities to optimize and sustain the H-component

Ideas for applying new frameworks

• A framework to identify and involve multiple actors (4B’s)

• A framework to facilitate information and knowledge sharing in water related development projects (WICKS)

A new framework for facilitating cooperation, communication and co-learning among stakeholders in the

public domain (4B-framework)

• The classical paradigm is characterized by separation of public power and responsibilities leading to long top-down hierarchical and bureaucratic decision making procedures and technocratic solutions for societal problems.

• The new paradigm is proposing new, effective and efficient ways of dealing with problems in society by introducing an open and multilateral cooperation and network based decision processes among four societal “Basic”forces to develop collaboratively creative and innovative solutions. (“Physics of cooperation” by Ad de Rooij ;in Dutch)

A new framework for facilitating cooperation, communication and co-learning among stakeholders in the

public domain (4B-framework)

• The basic hypothesis of the framework is the multiple interactions of four societal ‘Basic”-forces connected to groups of actors, each with their own role and responsibility:• i)citizens/communities force: end-users with experienced problems and wishes; • ii)administrators force: vision and the public decision power for the realization process; • iii)bureaucrats force: care-takers of the process and the integration approach, and • iv)companies/NGO’s force: creation and realization of solutions

• Any infrastructure or community development can be described and analyzed with the 4B-Framework.It structures objects, subjects and actors, and supports multiple co-learning on integrated strategies to solve social, economic and ecological problems on a local scale.

A framework for facilitating information sharing and communication (WICKS) R.Price

Figure: Information communication framework

Data collection

interface

Procedural interface Analysis

interface

Data collection interface

A framework for facilitating information sharing and communication (WICKS) R.Price

This framework is built on the notion that:• We live and work in the physical and social world simultaneously

• The involvement of stakeholders in water projects is essential for the sustainability of associated physical, technical and social interventions.

• Successful involvement depends on a suitable generation, analysis and communication of information between the engineering, technical and social science professionals, the decision makers, and the beneficiaries.

• Information and communication technologies (ICT) can increasingly facilitate the information and knowledge management and the involvement of all stakeholders in water projects.

• The corresponding information communication system (ICS) tools can facilitate the decision making processes in the water sector taking into account the proposed physical interventions and the related social changes.

A framework for facilitating information sharing and communication (WICKS) R.Price

Information communication tools can facilitate the decision making processes by:

•Monitoring, Modelling, and Managing the physical (water)world

•Knowledge mapping, Knowledge acquisition, Knowledge sharing (communication) and developing Decision Support Systems

UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education

Postgraduate Education, Training and Capacity Building in Water, Environment and Infrastructure

www.unesco-ihe.org