4th World Water Forum: Thematic Process

 

Thematic framework of the Forum

 

To facilitate and guide the selection of the topics to be addressed in the Forum, a framework of themes and cross-cutting issues has been prepared. It comprises 5 major themes corresponding to global challenges and 5 cross curring issues aimed at bringing local action foreword. Both are described in the table and figure below.

 

 

Framework themes	Cross-cutting perspectives
1- Water for Development	1- New Models for Financing Local Water Initiatives
2- Implementing Water Resources Management	2- Institutional Development, Right and Political Processes
3- Water and Sanitation for All	3- Capacity Building and Social Learning
4- Water for Food and the Environment	4- Application of Science, Technology and Knowledge
5- Risk Management	5- Targeting, Monitoring and Implementation Assessment

 

 

For each theme and cross-cutting perspective, a "beacon" (an organisation or a group of organisations) has been appointed. This beacon is responsible for providing thematic guidance on the various themes or cross-cutting issues. They should be greatly implicated in the regional preparatory process.

 

Two important meetings to facilitate exchanges between beacons and regional representatives have been scheduled in 2005, one in February, one in November. Additional ones may be organised on an ad-hoc basis.

 

 

 

How is the thematic framework implemented?

 

Beacons have been given the first task to prepare baseline documents, which have been discussed in the Beacons meeting held in Mexico in February 2005. These documents tentatively precise the scopes of activities involved in the various themes and delineate the issues at the local level.

 

These baseline documents will be made available to everybody involved in the preparatory process, who will be given the opportunity to react to them.

 

The baseline documents will progressively evolve into main documents for the Forum, and will contain analysis and proposals relevant to the major themes of the Forum.

 

Beacons are also supposed to contribute to the selection of local actions relevant to their respective themes and cross-cutting issues.