Paris, 27 April 2012 Original: English International Hydrological Programme 20 th session of the Intergovernmental Council (Paris, 4 7 June 2012) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE STRATEGIC PLAN OF THE EIGHTH PHASE OF IHP (IHP- VIII, 2014-2021) Item 6 of the provisional agenda Summary This document includes a summary of the actions taken for the preparation of the draft Strategic Plan for the Eight Phase of IHP since the 19th session of the IHP Council, as well as an executive summary of the draft Strategic Plan, fully available as document IHP/IC-XX/Inf.4. Attention is drawn to the proposed eight-year phase of IHP-VIII (2014-2021) in response to the decision of the 36th session of the General conference of UNESCO (25 October to 10 November 2011). This document was prepared by the Task Force for the formulation of IHP- VIII. Decision required: The Council is invited to review and approve the draft Strategic Plan. A draft resolution to that effect is included in the Annex of this document.
SUMMARY OF ACTIONS SINCE THE 19TH SESSION OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL COUNCIL OF IHP 1. Planning for the detailed consultation with Member States was initiated on 10 August 2010 through a letter from the IHP Secretariat to the coordinator of the Task Force (hereafter referred to as the TF) for the formulation of the eight phase of IHP (IHP-VIII, summarizing the discussions that took place in the 19th session of the IHP Council and transmitting the Council s recommendations to the TF for the formulation of IHP-VIII, along with the Secretariat view of the consultation process relative to those associated with previous phases. 2. On 22 November 2010, the TF presented a proposal for a Member States survey. On 20 December 2010, and upon detailed discussions, revisions to content and extent of the survey aiming to ensure compliance with the instructions of the Bureau and Council were made and agreed upon by the Secretariat and the TF. The Secretariat also prepared a comprehensive transmission package aiming to facilitate Member States responses. 3. On 12 January 2011, the detailed Member States consultation process was formally launched through email. The consultation package was sent electronically to all IHP National Committees and to other partners in three languages: English, French, and Spanish. Upon the request of some Member States, the initial deadline of 28 February 2011 for receiving responses to the survey was later extended to 15 March 2011. The detailed consultation survey included 9 questions, aiming to collect qualitative and quantitative information about key Member States priorities and challenges, and IHP s role in addressing these challenges during its eighth phase. 4. The Secretariat pre-processed all survey responses and conducted a preliminary analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data. A teleconference was held on 19 April 2011 between the Secretariat team and the TF coordinator to review the status of the Member States consultation and discuss the draft outline of the strategic plan of IHP-VIII. The Secretariat submitted its initial analysis, along with the full data set including translated surveys, collated qualitative data, and quantitative data to the Task Force on 22 April 2011. 5. On 19 May 2011, the TF submitted a draft outline of the strategic plan of IHP-VIII to the Secretariat. 6. At its 46th session (30 May-1 June 2011), the IHP Bureau discussed at length the progress made in the formulation of the Eighth Phase of the IHP (IHP-VIII). Ms Maria Concepcion Donoso, TF coordinator, presented an overview of the work of the TF including the cooperation with the Secretariat on formulating and conducting the detailed consultation with Member States as defined by the 19th session of the IHP Intergovernmental Council. 7. The Bureau made suggestions to be followed by the TF while continuing the IHP-VIII development process, and requested that a first draft strategic plan be submitted by the September 2011 timeline for their comments. The Bureau suggested to the TF to consider water security as the main thematic focus, which would include water scarcity, extreme events, water quality and groundwater, all of which fall within the larger context of IWRM as thematic areas in IHP-VIII. The Bureau adopted the amendments to the TF Terms of Reference (TOR) and timeline. 8. Following the 46th session of the IHP Bureau, a TF meeting was held in Paris from 5-7 June 2011. The TF was briefed on the recommendations of the 46th session of the Bureau related to IHP-VIII and the inputs from Member States. Following the discussion the TF outlined the draft themes and focal areas for IHP-VIII. 9. On 12 October 2011, the TF submitted a first draft strategic plan of the Eighth Phase Enhancing water security: Responses to local and global challenges.
Page 2 10. On 12 October 2011, the Secretariat e-mailed a first draft of the strategic plan to the Bureau members. 11. On 24 October 2011, the IHP Bureau held a teleconference to discuss the first draft strategic plan with the Secretariat and the TF coordinator. Attending were Mr Soontak Lee (Chairperson, region IV), Mr Matt Larsen (Vice-Chair, region I), Mr Jovan Despotovic (Vice-Chair, region II), Mr Polioptro Martinez de Austria (Vice-Chair, region III), Mr Juma Chrispine Omondi (Vice-Chair, region Va), Mr Mohammed Elhassan Eltayeb (Vice-Chair, region Vb) and Ms Maria Donoso, Coordinator of the IHP-VIII Task Force. Among the recommendations of the Bureau was that the revised version will have no more than 5 focal areas within each theme and five activities within each focal area. The Bureau members agreed to further discuss the issues during their presence in Paris (1-3 November 2011) for the 36th session of the General Conference of UNESCO. 12. On 3 November 2011, a meeting was organized among the Bureau members (Messrs Soontak Lee, Jovan Despotovic and Juma Chrispine Omondi) attending the 36th General Conference to discuss the IHP-VIII draft strategic plan. The meeting provided further comments on the draft document and stressed to maintain the timelines given the upcoming meetings of the IHP governing bodies. 13. On 22 November 2011, the IHP Secretariat formally launched the second consultation by sending the draft strategic plan to all IHP National Committees and Focal Points, the UNESCO- IHE Institute for Water Education, the water-related centres under the auspices of UNESCO, and the UNESCO water-related Chairs and requested to provide comments by 20 January 2012. 14. On 14 December 2011, the IHP Secretariat submitted a second reminder on the second consultation of the draft strategic plan. 15. On 17 January 2012, the IHP Secretariat submitted a final reminder on the second consultation of the draft strategic plan, extending the deadline up to 27 January 2012. 16. Due to the budgetary situation in UNESCO, the TF meeting scheduled for February 2012 was replaced with a teleconference, organized on 29February 2012 among the TF to discuss comments and inputs received from the Member States. The TF members decided to review comments provided by Members States and provide a revised version to the Secretariat before the out-of-session meeting of the IHP Bureau, held on 14 March 2012, during the 6 th World Water Forum in Marseille, France. For this purpose, the TF submitted the revised third version of the draft on 12 March 2012, which was then forwarded to the IHP Bureau members attending the Forum, 17. An out-of-session meeting of the Bureau was held in Marseille, France, on the14 March 2012. Mr Soontak Lee (Chairperson, representing region IV), and the following Vice-Chairs attended the meeting: Ms Jo Leslie Eimers (representing Mr Matthew Carl Larsen, region I); Mr Jovan Despotovic (region II); Mr Javier Aparicio Mijares (representing Mr Polioptro F. Martinez Austria, region III); Mr Juma Chrispine Omondi (region Va); and Mr Abdalla Abdelsalam Ahmed (representing Mr Mohammed Elhassan Eltayeb, region Vb). Also present at the meeting were Ms Maria Donoso (Coordinator, IHP-VIII TF) and Mr Verne R. Schneider (US Geological Survey). 18. The TF coordinator presented an update on the preparation of the draft strategic plan. She noted the diverse inputs received from numerous Member States and the process adopted for the preparation of the draft strategic plan. In particular, she noted minor changes in chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4. On chapter 5, she noted that several Member States requested the introduction of new themes and focal areas. Some countries also requested a detailed development of the themes, a major shift into pure research and less applied activities and several specific issues. The Bureau expressed their appreciation for the work and progress made by the TF and provided further
Page 3 comments on the third draft of the strategic plan including the importance of having education and training as a separate theme. 19. On 4 April 2012, the TF coordinator submitted to the Secretariat the revised version of the third draft strategic plan including the incorporation of the comments received and a new theme on education, for submission to the Bureau members who presented their comments to the TF via the Secretariat by April 12 2012. The TF submitted the final draft version on 18 April, in order to allow lead time for the translation of the document for distribution among the IHP Council members by 4 May after being voluntarily edited by the US IHP National Committee. 20. The TF wishes to record its appreciation for the invaluable support that the IHP Bureau and Secretariat had provided to its work. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF IHP- VIII 21. The new phase of IHP follows the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) era and envisions new challenges to be set in Rio+20. During its eighth phase, IHP aims to improve water security in response to local, regional, and global challenges. For our purpose, water security is defined as the capacity of a population to safeguard access to adequate quantities of water of acceptable quality for sustaining human and ecosystem health on a watershed basis, and to ensure efficient protection of life and property against water related hazards floods, landslides, land subsidence and droughts. Water security is an increasing concern, given population growth, uncontrolled urban expansion, extensive land use changes, degradation of water quality, growing impact of floods, droughts and of other hydrological effects of global changes. Consequently, the overarching focus of IHP-VIII is encompassed in its title Water security: Responses to local, regional, and global challenges. The eighth phase of IHP reflects a deeper understanding of the interfaces and interconnections between the water, energy and food nexus, which aims to further improve integrated water resources management (IWRM). The role of human behavior, cultural beliefs, and attitudes toward water, and the need for research in social and economic sciences to understand and develop tools to adapt to human impacts of changing water availability, are challenges to be addressed in IHP-VIII. In response to the priorities and needs of Member States, IHP-VIII focuses on six knowledge areas, translated into themes: Theme 1: Water-related disasters and hydrological change Theme 2: Groundwater in a changing environment Theme 3: Addressing water scarcity and quality Theme 4: Water and human settlements of the future Theme 5: Ecohydrology, engineering harmony for a sustainable world Theme 6: Water education, key for water security 22. These themes address issues pertaining to managing water security, water quality and pollution control; adaptation to the impacts of climate change and natural disasters on water resources; management and protection of groundwater resources for sustainable living and poverty alleviation in developing countries and in arid and semi-arid regions and small islands; integration of catchment scale ecohydrological concepts and processes in advanced water management models; management of water resources for human settlements of the future; and water education as a key element to attain water security. These six themes are further developed in chapter 5. IHP-VIII has been designed to allow for a high degree of connectivity between topical areas. To connect thematic contents, crosscutting issues are addressed across the defined areas of knowledge or themes and are focused on: conjunctive surface watergroundwater sustainable management in an IWRM based on holistic and environmentally sound approaches as well as social and cultural traditions; integrated management consistent with transboundary water resources to prevent and/or overcome potential international conflicts over
Page 4 water; evaluation of the impact of key global change drivers on water resources availability and quality and population vulnerability; formulation of the framework for water governance policy based on multilevel and trans-sectoral approaches and integration of water stakeholders and general public; endorsement of the effort in water education, training, capacity building and hydrological research. In particular, IHP-VIII endorses the UNESCO goals to further equal opportunities for women and children. 23. However innovative the eighth phase is in itself, various initiatives emerged from previous IHP phases and IHP associated and cross-cutting programmes (ISARM, PCCP, IFI, HELP, ISI, FRIEND, G-WADI, GRAPHIC, JIIHP, UWMP, WHYMAP and the newly established IDI). In this context, an important emphasis on IHP-VIII has been to ensure continuity of IHP initiatives, while also responding to new challenges identified by Member States. IHP-VIII brings innovative methods, models, technologies and approaches into play to optimize resources and capitalize on the advances of water sciences as well as social and/or economic opportunities while consolidating, expanding, and strengthening its implementation mechanisms. 24. The full draft Strategic Plan of the IHP-VIII (2014-2021) is available as document IHP/IC- XX/Inf.4. 25. The Council may wish to consider the draft resolution contained in the Annex.
IHP/IC-XX/20 Page 5 ANNEX DRAFT RESOLUTION CONCERNING THE DRAFT STRATEGIC PLAN FOR THE EIGHTH PHASE OF IHP (IHP-VIII, 2014-2021) The Intergovernmental Council of the International Hydrological Programme of UNESCO: Cognizant Emphasizing Acknowledging Endorses Approves Recommends Requests of the lead role played by the International Hydrological Programme for almost four decades in the development of hydrology as a science and water management tools at the global level; that the International Hydrological Programme should continue to exert such leadership in the future, and in particular in its the Eighth Phase (IHP VII,I 2014-2021); that the decision by Member States to make water one of the priorities of UNESCO has enabled the International Hydrological Programme to flourish substantially, and originate other UNESCO initiatives in freshwater, including the integration into UNESCO of the UNESCO-IHE Institute of Water Education, the establishment of numerous waterrelated centers operating under the auspices of UNESCO, and the lead role of UNESCO in the UN World Water Assessment Programme; the planned transition from phase VII into phase VIII of the International Hydrological Programme, focusing on water security; the Strategic Plan for Phase VIII of the IHP, on Water Security: Responses to Local, Regional, and Global Challenges, as drafted by the Task Force established to develop this Plan in consultation with Member States; that the General Conference of UNESCO, at its 37th session, integrate the main elements of the Strategic Plan for the Eighth Phase of the International Hydrological Programme into the 37 C/4 and 37 C/5; The Secretariat of IHP to start preparing an implementation plan for IHP-VIII in consultation with the IHP Bureau, Member States, category I and II centres and relevant partners.