International collaboration in water management: water as unifying concept
Written by Wim Van Vierssen, Professor Emeritus & WssTP Vice-President. Article published in the “Journal of European Auditors”.
Cooperation in the field of public audit is the main theme of this ECA Journal. But how does cooperation look like in other areas? What is the approach to cooperation in another area that is clearly vital for everybody: water? Professor Wim van Vierssen, previously CEO of KWR Watercycle Research Institute and current vice-president of the Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform, has worked almost his whole life with issues related to water. In this ECA Journal Long Read, he presents specificities of the water sector at large and how such a cross border issue as water, often organised locally, has led to multiple cooperation efforts, with success. And he also makes the link with the role of the EU and of public sector audits in this area.
To read the full article of WssTP Vice-President, please download the document here.
Read MoreEIC Horizon Prize for “Affordable High-Tech for Humanitarian Aid”
The EIC Horizon Prizes offer money to those who can solve some of society’s most difficult challenges, without detailing how this should be achieved or who should achieve it. These prizes are open to anyone willing to think outside the box across sectors and disciplines. A total value of EUR 5 million will be allocated in five awards of EUR 1 million each for the best, proven, cost-effective tech-based solution for humanitarian aid in five distinct thematic areas: – Shelter and related assistance – Water, sanitation and hygiene – Energy – Health and medical care – Other forms of humanitarian aid (“open category”) Cooperation between international organisations and NGOs responding to crises, beneficiaries and local actors, research and scientific communities and the private sector is strongly encouraged in the context of this Prize. The deadline to apply is 15 January 2020 and the contest is open to all legal entities from all countries. For more information, please click here. |
Resource Nexus Policy & Cluster Workshop
WssTP participated at theResource Nexus Policy & Cluster Workshop that took place at EASMEpremises on the 27th of November. The workshop started with a short presentation of the three Horizon2020 projects organising the event, SIM4NEXUS, MAGIC and DAFNE and featured four panel sessions that brought forward, amongst others, the following key messages: Nexus thinking requires both mind-set change but also institutional change; it is necessary to break existing technical, social, regulatory and institutional silos. These silos put challenges to the governance of the nexus. There are different ways of producing knowledge; to address theWEF nexus governance we need not only technical knowledge but also tap into other types of knowledge: multi-actor engagement is necessary. Contextualisation: When it comes to nexus governance, there is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach but it needs to be tailored to each situation. There is limited conceptual and practical guidance about the nexus. Two main challenges that are to be addressed: 1) the complexity of the nexus itself and, 2) the issue of policy fragmentation. The workshop concluded with some follow-up actions, including a possible event in 2019, and the launch of a website of the NexusProject Cluster, which is accessible here. The presentations of theworkshop can be found here. To read the whole overview from the workshop, please click here. |