2 April 2001
Changing of the Guard: New Director Appointed for Transition Period
Jeremy Bird to lead transition Secretariat through August, when follow-on Unit is scheduled to start

The WCD Report was published and widely disseminated starting last November 16. As scheduled, the Commission has been effectively and successfully "decommissioned." The WCD has formally completed its dissemination phase. Secretary-General Achim Steiner, like the bulk of the Secretariat, has departed to face new challenges elsewhere.

Gone, but not forgotten, the spirit and momentum of the WCD is scheduled to live on in a newly established, independent Dams & Development Unit (DDU), hosted, provisionally, by the United Nations Environment Program, as requested by a broad consensus of the Final WCD Forum. That unit is scheduled to start work August 1, 2001.

Consequently, at the request of the Forum, Professor Kader Asmal has agreed that from April 1 through July 31, a small crew from the WCD Secretariat will bridge the gap through a transition effort. The group will be led by former Senior Advisor Jeremy Bird, a specialist in river basin management, water resources and irrigation policy with extensive experience in Asia.

The new and independent transition group will continue to carry out the dissemination and communication efforts, following in the footsteps of the WCD and preparing for a smooth hand over to the future DDU.

This agenda was made explicit in the proposal that arose in the Final WCD Forum meeting at Spier, as detailed from an independent facilitator's "Sense of the Meeting":

"After extended discussions in the ensuing two days, members of the Forum agreed in the final session to work through their diverse governmental, private sector and civil society organisations and affiliations:

• To ensure widespread dissemination and understanding of the report, its findings and recommendations, in particular within countries from the national to local level and among all sectors. Further translations of the report will be promoted.



• To promote testing, refinement and adaptation in implementing the Commission's proposed guidelines in the varied practical contexts world-wide, for example concerning the assessment of options and the practicality of the WCD recommendations.



• To promote dialogue, information exchange and networking in working with the WCD report.

Given that the Commission has completed its mandate and consequently the WCD Secretariat will be closed and the role of the Forum in advising the Commission has come to an end, the Spier meeting mandated the Forum Liaison Group (FLG) to take the lead in establishing new arrangements for the dissemination and implementation of the WCD report."

As a result of the Forum meeting, details are being worked out for: a Dams and Development Unit (DDU), a small office to be established by August 1, 2001, that would be charged with facilitating the exchange of information among all stakeholders about initiatives and outcomes relating to dams and development, and to co-ordinate future meetings. The DDU will have a mandate to operate for two years.