Table of Contents

A. Regional Consultations
B. WCD Forum Meetings
C. Focal Dam/River Basin Case Study Consultations
D. Thematic Review Consultations
E. General Submissions
F. Inputs From Other Sources
G. Inputs via the WCD Website

General
A substantial part of the WCD’s capacity will be directed towards encouraging and facilitating the input of all interested stakeholders in an open and transparent process. The input will be obtained by employing a set of consultative and feedback mechanisms. The information gathering process will be focused in a way to enable the Commission to be open to all forms of inputs, commissioned and non-commissioned. Translated into activities the input would be derived from:

A. Regional Consultations

1. At least three regional consultations are planned for South Asia, South/Latin America and Africa/Middle East.

2. The consultations are seen as two-day events managed by consultation-specific task forces, co-ordinated by the Communications Group within the Secretariat. Participants will represent a cross-section of the Commission’s stakeholders from the government and non-government sectors, the private sector and the academic/research communities. The inputs from the participants will be in the form of presentations to the panel of WCD Commissioners. The presentations will reflect the knowledge and experience of the different interest groups represented at the consultation and will help the Commissioners identify commonalties between different regional experiences in dams/water resource development. Observers from local and regional media and other stakeholders groups will be present.

B. WCD Forum Meetings

1. The 55-member WCD Forum is seen as a sounding board and as a source of input and information feeding into the Commission’s work programme. The Forum will include some members of the Reference Group that helped establish the Commission. It is seen, therefore, as a valuable partner that will assist in increasing ownership of the Commission’s work and its final outputs among the Forum’s diverse and influential constituencies. It is expected that the Forum will play a major role in taking forward the findings of the Commission in the period after June 2000.

2. Two meetings are planned for the Forum. The first meeting is scheduled for Europe in March 1999 to be followed by a meeting in April 2000. The meetings will be co-ordinated by the Communications Group. The WCD Forum meetings will be held in a two-day workshop format.

C. Focal Dam/River Basin Case Study Consultations

1. The WCD will commission at least eight case studies based on methodology established in our pilot case study of South Africa’s Orange River. In-country and regional inputs will be an essential element of the river basin/focal dam case study development process conducted as part of the Global Review of the Development Effectiveness of Dams. The inputs will be valuable for two reasons – for gathering and reviewing information as well as for obtaining feedback on the drafts/final reports on the case studies prepared by the in-country and regional specialists engaged for the case studies under the Secretariat’s supervision.

2. One of the preliminary information-gathering activities for case studies will be stakeholder review of the ‘scoping’ papers that will outline the method, approach and priority issues for each case study. In their research, the in-country teams of consultants chosen to carry out each study will consult widely with relevant stakeholders. Once each case study is wrapped up, the preliminary findings then will be put before a workshop of stakeholders, thus closing the feedback loop. The final results of the case studies will be disseminated through appropriate means.

3. The case study consultation process will be co-ordinated by a team-leader in the Secretariat, with the assistance of the Communications Group.

D. Thematic Review Consultations

1. The Secretariat, drawing on the Commission members’ expertise, will prepare ‘scoping’ papers for each thematic review, to be peer-reviewed by stakeholders and experts chosen by the WCD. Consultants (individual experts or institutions) then will develop summary papers for wide-ranging review by interested stakeholders, through meetings and electronic and other means. Where those discussions fail to yield generally acknowledged convergence on the issues, the paper(s) in question then may be put before a task force of stakeholders, for further elaboration.

2. The thematic review consultations will be organised by relevant programme staff under the guidance of the Commissioners and with the assistance of the Communications Group.

E. General Submissions

1. Over the life of the Commission, the WCD foresees a large number of submissions being sent to the Commission through various electronic and non-electronic means. These submissions will cover a range of general issues and local concerns, and could be sent by any individual or organisation. The submissions are expected to emerge as awareness of the WCD grows.

2. Guidelines for submissions have been developed to ensure their proper management by the Secretariat, including circulation among the Commissioners and to those carrying out WCD studies. These guidelines are on the web site and will be circulated by other appropriate means as well. It should be noted that the guidelines are not exclusionary and all forms of submissions will be accepted. An index of all submissions received will be maintained on the website.

3. The submissions process will be co-ordinated by a submissions working group within the Secretariat.

F. Inputs from other sources

1. Planned inputs also will be taken from sources other than those identified above. These would be solicited from research/academic institutions, international organisations, NGOs and professional associations. These inputs will feed into specific areas of the work programme.

2. The solicited inputs will be co-ordinated by programme staff from relevant thematic groups. The inputs will be driven by need and commissioned as and when required.

1.The new WCD website, launched in early November 1998, has specific features to encourage a flow of information and communication between the Commission and its diverse range of stakeholders around the globe. They are encouraged to comment on WCD studies-in-progress, documents pertaining to which will be posted under the Work Programme section of the website; and to discuss issues in the WCD website discussion group.

2.The Web greatly expands the Commission’s consultative capacities and should be seen as an add-on to the otherwise restricted possibilities of conducting multi-sectoral, international consultations on a limited budget, and not an elitist approach to communication.

3. The WCD recognises that not all stakeholders have access to the Web. This is particularly true of affected peoples’ groups. They will be consulted locally in the case studies, and represented by NGOs consulted in the thematic studies, in Commission hearings and other meetings, and are invited to make submissions directly to the Commission.

4. The WCD Forum members will be approached to further the dissemination of WCD material (from the Web, WCD newsletter and other sources) by circulating it, in various forms, through their own networks, and to encourage submissions to the WCD.