Spotlight

Cross-regional virtual Knowledge Fair on Water Governance
By Sonya Knox, SURF-AS

The essence of UNDP’s Knowledge Management approach was recently brought to life in a virtual Knowledge Fair on Water Governance (http://www.waterfair.org). Combining the Arab States with Europe and the CIS region in a dynamic, user-friendly website, 35 case studies were presented from 18 countries, along with nine best practice videos and three live discussions.

“This truly exemplifies UNDP and its role in making KM work” says Ramla Khalidi, Deputy Chief at SURF-AS. “The Fair identified good practices in water governance, codified them, packaged the main messages in user friendly templates and documentary videos and brought together practitioners to review and discuss implementation challenges and solutions.”

The three-day fair, held from November 15 – 17, witnessed 1,800 visits and attracted 600 registered participants from around the globe. A pilot joint venture between SURF-AS and the Bratislava Regional Centre, the water governance K-fair was funded through the global Knowledge Management Fund. The static website – with all the case studies and best practices content – remains available online.

“This is a great example of a cross-regional, multi-practice partnership ,” explains Elie Kodsi, Environment Advisor at SURF-AS. “By partnering with CapNet and Awarenet, we maximized water governance knowledge. Additionally, by bringing in both RBEC’s and the Arab Region’s water Communities of Practice, we created high quality live discussions.”

An innovation from start to finish – and UNDP’s first-ever online knowledge fair – the K-fair brought participants from 115 different countries together virtually, and thus avoided the creation of over 1,000 tons of carbon-dioxide emissions.

Timed to follow the launch of the Human Development Report 2006 “Beyond crisis: Power, poverty and the global water crisis,” the K-fair featured live discussions with experts on water governance issues and virtual booths documenting national and sub-regional water-related activities.

“We wanted to bring together experts and practitioners via the internet to discuss the challenges for the 21 st century, and how to translate the HDR findings into concrete activities and new projects on the ground,” says Juerg Staudenmann, UNDP Regional Water Advisor in Bratislava.

The K-fair’s inclusive, virtual approach enabled members of the water community, journalists and the general public worldwide to take part in the fair. It also set the stage for long-term collaboration of water professionals around the world to exchange good practices and establish new partnerships.

“I’m looking forward for more forums in the future with similar innovative ideas!” says Amal Dababseh, Environment Consultant at UNDP Jordan and one of the winners for the Most Active Participant awards, along with Mohamed Bayoumi of UNDP Egypt and Daniela Albu from UNDP Romania.

From the Arab region, UNDP’s Morocco (through Yassir Benabdallaoui, Programme Associate), Somalia (through Samuel Gitahi, Programme Specialist – Environment), Jordan and Egypt all took part in the K-fair, and their innovative multi-media best practices in water governance can be downloaded from each country’s page on www.waterfair.org. Jordan and Egypt were also awarded for their excellent work in multi-media production and innovative approaches to problem solving.

A vital component of the K-fair was the replicability of the best practices presented, something emphasized in all of the case studies. In the K-fair’s online anonymous survey, 95% of participants stated that the water fair provided them with knowledge they can apply in the future, with 50% wanting more ways to participate and numerous requests for the next fair to last longer.

“We see this as only the start of a new partnership among the two regional CoPs and the beginning of using technology in new ways to capture and share global development knowledge”, says Ramla Khalidi. “We will learn from this event and plan for similar and better knowledge events in the future.”

The Water Governance K-Fair website is online at: http://www.waterfair.org

Check out the country profiles, case studies and videos for:
Egypt
Jordan
Morocco
Somalia