The World Commission on Dams is a groundbreaking process in global public policymaking. It works as a partnership, consulting with and bringing together all constituencies in the dams debate. The WCD work programme integrates social, economic, environmental, and other issues in the search for sustainable solutions to water and energy resource dilemmas.

For these reasons, the Reuters Foundation and the IUCN-World Conservation Union decided to make the WCD and dams issues the subject of their first joint media symposium on environmental and economic issues.

Opening/Welcome

Paul Mylrea, editor, Reuters Foundation AlertNet and Javed Ahmad, Director of Communications, IUCN-The World Conservation Union.

The WCD: the story of its founding, how it works, the issues it addresses

Professor Kader Asmal, WCD Chair and Minister of Education for the Republic of South Africa; and Achim Steiner, Secretary-General, WCD.

Conflicts in Sustainable Development

Maurice Strong, member of the board of the UN Foundation.

Dams and Energy - Hydropower as the Preferred Alternative

Alison Bartle, International Hydropower Association, UK

Dams, Development, and Food Security - A Review of India's Development Choices

B.G. Verghese, Centre for Policy Research, India.

The Cost of Dams: Whose Paradigm Counts?

Peter Bosshard, The Berne Declaration, Switzerland

The Commission: Its Role and Potential

Joji Carino, WCD Commissioner and staff member of the Tebtebba Foundation (International Centre for Indigenous Policy, Research and Education); Professor Kader Asmal.