Water is highly essential to all three dimensions of sustainability, i.e. social, economic, and environmental. It is interlinked to crucial aspects of society, such as food, health, and renewable energies. However, it is often overlooked or taken for granted and not explored to a satisfying extent. The UN Secretary General has stressed the importance of national consultations to solve water-related emergencies in the post-2015 development agenda.
Stakeholder consultations have the potential to set the right priorities and trigger solutions to issues on a national level. Recognising the need for local solution-building, Ambuja Cement Foundation has organised a participatory dialogue on ‘Co-creating water-positive communities – Exploring Synergies, Sharing Solutions’. The event will be held on the 22nd of March, commemorating World Water Day in 2017.
The one-day event puts knowledge generation and collective action high on the agenda. Besides high-profile panel discussions, there will be three break-out sessions that will focus on specific themes within the water arena. The sessions will draw on design-thinking principles, conceptualized by the 4th Wheel Social Impact, and aim to enhance the creativity and innovation potential of all participants. Each session will generate one specific output that can then be shared with the broader audience and across the country. The three sessions are directed at the following topics:
INVOLVE! Strengthening partnerships for the sustainability of drinking water programmes
Knowledge lead- Shreshtha Chowdhary, Safe Water Network & Tatjana Mauthofer, 4th Wheel Social Impact
This break-out session aims to co-create a comprehensive stakeholder mapping of development actors involved in drinking water programs. Stakeholders and their interlinkages will be identified, visualised, and explored in detail. This will help participants to brainstorm on solutions to broker and strengthen partnerships in the water sector.
ENERGISE! Participatory programme design for water harvesting initiatives
Knowledge Lead – Divyang Waghela, Tata Trust & Sharon Weir, 4th Wheel Social Impact
This break-out session will recognise current practices and identify challenges in involving communities to implement programmes. The session is shaped around a programming and planning framework. Post-it dumping and brainstorming activities will trigger participants’ creativity to collaboratively ideate solutions to improve community involvement, participation, and ownership.
ENABLE! Building capacities for water conservation
Knowledge lead- Shriya Damnia, WaterQuest & Praveen Aggarval, Strategic Business Leader
The third break-out session focuses on a capacity-building model. Participants will firstly visualise the stakeholders and the capacities which need to be built. They will be urged to think ‘out of the box’ and prototype two tangible ideas to bring innovations and technology to existing capacity-building programmes.
Please find the Event Snapshot here.
