GECHS

Two policy briefs written by GECHS SSC member Patricia Kameri-Mbote are now available from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In the newest brief of the Navigating Peace series of the Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP), Kameri-Mbote lays the historical foundation of water management in the Nile River Basin, and recommends policies for facilitating cooperation among the region’s many water users. In her second brief, published by the Africa Program, she argues that rather than being a source of competition, Africa’s dependence on natural resources can facilitate dialogue and provide a pathway to peacebuilding in the troubled Great Lakes Region.

GECHS SSC member Ken Conca has recently published “The New Face of Water Conflict” as part of a new series of policy-friendly briefs published by The Navigating Peace Initiative at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program. The series examines how water can contribute to cooperation between states, while addressing water’s role in conflict within states. The briefs offer policy recommendations for using water resources management to head off conflict and to support sustainable peace among countries.

Barnett, J. Webber, M. Wang, M. Finlayson, B. and Dickinson, D. 2006. ‘Ten Key Questions About the Human Dimensions of Water in the Yellow River Basin’, Environmental Management, 38(2): 179-188.

Abstract: Water is scarce in many regions of the world, clean water is difficult to find in most developing countries, there are conflicts between irrigation needs and urban demands, and there is wide debate over appropriate means of resolving these problems. Similarly, in China, there is limited understanding of the ways in which people, groups, and institutions contribute to, are affected by, and respond to changes in water quantity and quality. We use the example of the Yellow River basin to argue that these social, managerial, and policy dimensions of the present water problems are significant and overshadow the physical ones. Despite this, they receive relatively little attention in the research agenda, particularly of the lead agencies in the management of the Yellow River basin. To this end, we ask ten research questions needed to address the policy needs of water management in the basin, split into two groups of five. The first five relate to the importance of water in this basin and the changes that have affected water problems and will continue to do so. The second five questions represent an attempt to explore possible solutions to these problems.

The Environmental Change and Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars recently hosted GECHS SSC member Ken Conca as he presented research from his book Governing Water: Contentious Transnational Politics and Global Institution Building. Winner of the Chadwick F. Alger Prize and the Harold and Margaret Sprout Award, the book was inspired by the actions of the Itoiz protesters. Conca said: “The core question of the book is ‘What’s the relationship between this sort of contentious politics, this sort of extra-institutional disruptive politics, and our approaches to global environmental governance?’” His presentation is available online, along with video and other information about the event.

SSC members Ken Conca, Patricia Kameri-Mbote, and Lyla Mehta held a roundtable disucsssion at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to discuss the escalating water crisis experienced around the world and the threat of growing water scarcity.

Water is an emerging issue for human security, however, conventional portrayals of water scarcity mask how access to and control over water is highly unequal and a result of socio-political processes. Dr. Ken Conca examined how social and economic globalization are yielding informal but increasingly embedded sets of global rules and shaping the governance of water systems around the world. Dr. Patricia Kameri-Mbote addressed the conflict and cooperation dynamics at play in the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes Region. Dr. Lyla Mehta discussed how water scarcity relates to competing forms of governance that shape people’s rights and access to natural resources. This meeting was webcast live and will be archived at www.wilsoncenter.org.

Drs. Ken Conca, Lyla Mehta, and Patricia Kameri-Mbote speaking at the roundtable discussion on 24 May 2006. Photo: David Owen Hawxhurst.