Guidelines for equitable participation in water decision-making

The document outlines a methodology to make water governance more inclusive by addressing power imbalances and recognizing diverse forms of knowledge. It introduces a 'PAR-Pathways' approach that allows stakeholders to identify their starting points, desired end-goals, and the specific activities needed to achieve equitable influence in water planning. Through four global case studies, the guide demonstrates how different pathways—including legal challenges, boycotts, and the granting of legal personhood to rivers—can lead to more just water management outcomes.

• Power dynamics based on race, economic status, technical knowledge, and political status frequently hinder disadvantaged individuals from participating in water governance, often allowing those with more power to control water distribution to their own advantage.
• The proposed PAR-Pathways approach uses a sequential decision-making model to visualize how different stakeholders can engage in various activities over time and across spatial scales to reach a desired end-point, such as co-decision-making or empowerment.
• Case studies demonstrate that granting legal personhood or rights to rivers can be a successful pathway for Indigenous groups to protect resources and enforce customary rights, as seen with the Whanganui River in New Zealand and several rivers in Colombia.
• Meaningful multi-stakeholder participation requires moving beyond 'tokenistic information exchange' to legitimate and accountable engagement; in the Mekong River case, a boycott of the Mekong River Commission's processes was used to force structural changes in how community viewpoints are incorporated.
• The guide identifies two primary categories of barriers to equitable participation: operational barriers, such as poor coordination and lack of information on regulations, and agent barriers, such as lack of resources, expertise, and time.
• The Participatory Action Research (PAR) method involves a three-step process: identifying stakeholder groups and their discourses, co-producing research questions that address power and governance, and conducting participatory mapping and data collection.

APA

Bresney, S., Chalmers, D., Coleoni, C., Dyke, A., Escobar, M., Farnan, R., Forni, L., Pearson, L. J., & Santos, T. (2023). Guidelines for equitable participation in water decision-making. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/equitable-participation-water-decision-making-sei2023.030.pdf

Chicago

Bresney, Susie, Doug Chalmers, Claudia Coleoni, Alison Dyke, Marisa Escobar, Robert Farnan, Laura Forni, Leonie J. Pearson, and Tania Santos. Guidelines for equitable participation in water decision-making. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2023. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/equitable-participation-water-decision-making-sei2023.030.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{bresney2023guidelines, author = {Bresney, Susie and Chalmers, Doug and Coleoni, Claudia and Dyke, Alison and Escobar, Marisa and Farnan, Robert and Forni, Laura and Pearson, Leonie J. and Santos, Tania}, title = {{Guidelines for equitable participation in water decision-making}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2023}, month = may, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/equitable-participation-water-decision-making-sei2023.030.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }