Mandate

The overarching goals of the Commission as formulated at the Gland-workshop, were to:

(a) review the development effectiveness of dams and assess alternatives for water resources and energy development, and

(b) develop internationally accepted standards, guidelines and criteria for decision-making in the planning, design, construction, monitoring operation and decommissioning of dams.

The Commission initially had a two-year mandate, which followed a five-month preparatory phase (January-May 1998) and it was expected that the Commission's report would be issued by June 2000. All participants recognised from the outset that a two-year Commission would only be able to reach conclusions on a number of questions, while others would need to be addressed in new initiatives beyond the life of the Commission.

The Commission was independent and its remit was to include issues that address both broader considerations such as water and energy policy as well as more specific technical and case study oriented questions. The latter included project planning and economics, resettlement, compensation of affected communities, ecological impacts, and the cumulative and interactive effects of large dams in basin-wide contexts. The Commission's work was of an advisory nature and not investigatory in the sense of judicial commissions. Although it included the review and assessment of a range of specific cases, the Commission was not mandated to adjudicate on specific disputes.

Its scope of activities included project-specific case studies examined within a broader river basin context, selected national case studies, thematic research, consultations/hearings and panels or task forces on key issues. The WCD case studies were necessarily of a synthesising and policy nature, drawing on existing information and analyses as much as possible.

Institutional Form

Structure of the Commission

The Commission consisted of a Chair - Prof. Kader Asmal -eleven Commissioners of whom one - Mr. Lakshmi Chand Jain - was named Vice-Chair, and a Secretariat. It was originally agreed that Commissioners should be available for a minimum of 4 weeks per year, but the workload during the final year of the Commission's activities exceeded this allocation considerably.

The Secretary General, Achim Steiner, was appointed by the Chair and Vice-Chair and designated an ex-officio member of the Commission.

Chair Prof. Kader Asmal - Minister of Education South Africa

Vice Chair Mr. Lakshmi Chand Jain - Chairperson Industrial Development Services India

Mr. Don Blackmore - Chief Executive Murray-Darling Basin Commission Australia

Ms. Joji Cariño - Tebtebba Foundation Philippines

Prof. José Goldemberg - Institute of Electronics and Energy University of São Paulo Brazil

Ms. Deborah Moore - Senior Advisor Environmental Defense United States

Dr. Judy Henderson - Former Chair Oxfam International Australia

Mr. Göran Lindahl - President and CEO ABB Ltd Sweden

Prof. Thayer Scudder - Professor of Anthropology California Institute of Technology United States

Ms. Medha Patkar - Founder Narmada Bachao Andolan (Struggle to Save the Narmada River) India

Dr. Jan Veltrop - Honorary President, International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) United States

Mr. Achim Steiner - WCD Secretary General (Ex-officio Member of the Commission) Germany

The WCD regrettably had to accept the resignation of Madame Shen Guoyi from the Commission for personal reasons. The resignation of Madame Shen at the end of 1999 was at such an advanced phase in the Commission process that the other Commissioners unanimously decided not to appoint a new Commissioner for the last phase of the WCD's work.

WCD Secretariat

The Commission was supported by a full time secretariat located in Cape Town, South Africa with approximately 10 international professionals and 16 short-term research fellows. For key topics - such as the thematic reviews - on which the Commission wished to break new ground and make major recommendations, task forces and expert panels were formed to serve the Commission as needed. The dissemination phase was co-ordinated by a small contingent of staff from October 2000 to March 2001.

The Commission met "as a whole" 9 times during the period, with the discussion changing focus from developing and implementing the WCD work programme, to deliberating and finalising the Commission's findings and recommendations. A summary of the meeting schedule is presented in Table 2-1.

Progression Of Commission Meetings