ANNEX 7

Group 2. WORKING WITH THE REPORT

ACTORS

Governments. Urgent need of finding ways of engaging governments:

There exists a number of requests for assistance from countries (especially governments), but this is not enough. It is imperative to get governments on board.

How to ensure greater involvement of Governments?

Send the WCD report plus cover letter;

Use diplomatic channels;

Governments being non homogenous (Water Resources or Energy Ministries do not necessary perceive the report the same way than Environmental Ministries), ensure that relevant departments are involved.

Multilateral and bilateral organisations have a big role in supporting country-level dialogue on the report and resulting initiatives.

There is a growing role of private companies.

Grassroots organisations and PAPs. Noted cases where the WCD recommendations are already being used as a negotiation tool (e.g. putting pressure on developer).

NGO networks. Role mainly dissemination of WCD report.

Professional Association (industry group, research/training organisations)

II. POTENTIAL TARGET AREAS

Two guiding principles

Lack of total agreement with the WCD should not be an impediment to moving forward on the basis on areas agreed on eg. High level of acceptance of core values and Strategic Principles.

Avoid negotiating again what is in the report.

Use existing dam proposals (dams in the pipeline) to explore possibilities of using WCD recommendations. This applies to governments but also funding agencies.

Assess consistency of existing guidelines (at national level or being used by other stakeholder groups such as donor agencies, private companies, NGOs, professional associations) with WCD recommendations.

Use/test/operationalise selected WCD recommendations:

On “upstreaming” of the planning process (including Options Assessment)

Existing dams in developed and developing countries.

Effectiveness of WCD recommendations (transparency, accountability) as a means of addressing the issues of corruption and governance deficiencies.

PROCESS

Diversity of processes : Appropriate process will depend on the various contexts: avoid dictating what to do

In-country dialogue : Countries will use their own processes. Local initiatives such as in Nepal to be encouraged

But important to bring together various segments of governments (this could be suggested in the cover letter referred to earlier)

Involvement of society at national and regional levels is important and can require capacity building

Parallel process should be considered. In countries, at the level of bilateral and multilateral organisations, at the level of networks (NGOs and professional associations)