From Jan 18-20th top scientists, academics and researchers met in Lisbon, Portugal during a conference entitled “Making the Passage Through the 21st Century: Water as a Catalyst for Change”.

Organized by Colorado State University and BFSD member Luso-American Foundation and sponsored by UNESCO and the Bellagio Forum, the conference was held at the Portuguese National Laboratory for Civil Engineering in the heart of Lisbon.

Speakers included a wide range of international experts such as Colorado Sate’s Prof. Evan Vlachos, Ecologic’s Dr. Andreas Kraemer, João Caraça of the Gulbekian Foundation, Eugene Stakiv of the Head of Institute for Water Resources of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and Dennis Meadows, author of “The Limits to Growth”.

Meeting organizer Charles Buchanan commented, “Water is a topic that is truly universal. Regardless of whether we are talking about developing or developed countries, landlocked nations, or even islands, managing water resources is one of the pivotal challenges of the 21st century. This is the third of a series of conferences on the issue and naturally we will publish the results of this just as the last. It is our hope that the issues we discuss here become part of a legacy and are used by others around the world. As a universal issue, the problems we work out and the solutions we find can, with some modification, be adapted for almost anywhere in the world.

The discussions in the plenary as well as in the margins of the Conference produced insights into the (potential) role of foundations and endowments in the field of water management and policy. There are a number of areas where grant-makers have to play a role that only they can play:

1) Democracy promotion & International water commissions: We are witnessing the establishment of international commissions for the coordination of water management in trans-boundary river basins, around shared lakes and enclosed seas, all over the World. These commissions are essentially inter-governmental or trans-national and involve governmental officials or government appointed experts. Very often they lack a civil-society component and have no mechanisms for meaningful participation by citizens, non-governmental organizations, independent (rather than government-appointed) researchers. In consequence, ideas and solutions discussed in the commissions are not sufficiently contested, and decisions and actions by the commission lack democratic legitimacy. The opportunity to use the establishment of international water commissions to promote democracy, transparency and accountability to the public is being lost. Non-governmental grant-makers can have a role in supporting capacity-building in civil- society institutions, strengthening international civil-society networks, and spreading good and best practice in ensuring access to information, involvement in decision-making, access to review and revision, and (ultimately also) access to justice in the structure, composition, procedures and operations of international water commissions. Governmental grant-makers, including international development organizations, do not have the necessary credibility.

2) Facilitating transition: Helping old schools to adapt without losing face: In too many cases, water management decisions are still taken by relatively closed technocracies consisting of civil engineers, hydrologists etc. The governmental, technical and operational institutions for water management are characterized by a closed culture, open only to influence by political decisions, which is itself lacking transparency and often incompatible with long-term water management objectives and sustainable development. Settlements in flood plains and the construction of critical infrastructure along fragile coastlines are examples. Essentially, the paradigm of the water engineers and managers is to "predict and provide" for water services, including flood protection, and to accept whatever demands are placed on them, even if privately they understand the limits of the approach and futility of measures imposed on them. Global environmental change is now exposing the folly of some past decisions imposed by powerful interests on water managers, and this is leading to questions about the legitimacy of exercising power in this way.

It is also opening new discourses on the relationship between society, planning and infrastructure, and decision-making. In order to overcome the current situation, stronger contributions from the social sciences, notably economics, political science and sociology, as well as from lawyers are needed. The established research and training structures, and the existing platforms for public or academic discourse are not up to the challenge of providing new bridges between engineering and hydrology, and social sciences - and to allow changes of paradigms to occur without loss of face. Private grant- makers should step in to establish fora and facilitate and nourish the necessary debates.

The lines of argument in that proposal were confirmed by the Lisbon conference.

“This conference,” said Bellagio Forum Director Sam Shiroff, “is being supported by members of the Bellagio Forum Working Group. It is an example of partnership that is bringing about tangible outcomes on an extremely important issue. I appreciate the work that has been put into it and believe it reflects very well upon the efforts of Bellagio Forum members.”

The results of the conference, including the presentations and other conferences material will be made available in the coming weeks. Additional information can be found at the website of the Luso American Foundation: www.flad.pt. For a more detailed description of the topic and of previous conferences, please click here.