Symposium on Improving Public Participation and Governance in IWMUVA School of Law, April 18-19, 2003

Multi-stakeholder Involvement and IWRM in Transboundary River Basins:

GEF/UNEP/OAS Experiences with the Strategic Action Program for the San Juan River Basin Costa Rica and Nicaragua

The Inter-American Strategy for the Promotion of Public Participation in Decision-making for Sustainable Development (ISP)

The ISP

Its PrinciplesProactivity; Inclusiveness; Shared Responsibility; Openness throughout the process; Access; Transparency; and Respect for Public input

Recommendations for Action Information and Communication Legal Frameworks Institutional Procedures and Structures Education and Training Funding for Participation Opportunities and Mechanisms for Public Participation

GEF/UNEP/OAS Experiences in IWRM in Transboundary River Basins

GEF/UNEP/OAS Experiences

The Bermejo River Basin (Argentina and Bolivia) The Binational Commission

The Argentine Provinces

The Pilot Projects

The Sao Francisco River Basin (Brazilian States and the Federal District)

The River Basin Committee of the Sao Francisco River Basin

The case of EMBRAPA

The Formulation of a SAP for the San Juan River Basin and its Coastal Zone (Costa Rica and Nicaragua)

Ensuring Multi-stakeholder Involvement from the Earliest Stages of Project Formulation: The Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA)

The Causal-chain The Demonstration Projects and

Basic Studies The impasse

The TDA

The Formulation of a SAP for the San Juan River Basin and its Coastal Zone (Costa Rica and Nicaragua)

Ensuring Social Acceptability of the Proposed Measures: The Strategic Action Program (SAP)

The Demonstration Projects and Basic Studies

The Public Participation Workshops

Bulletins, Web site, Festivals, Contests, and others

The SAP

Gender, Inequities and IWRM Mainstreaming gender

Increasing the likelihood of success

The Formulation of a SAP for the San Juan River Basin and its Coastal Zone (Costa Rica and Nicaragua)

The Strategic Action Program (SAP): A process for engaging all the stakeholders

Building ownership and empowering local stakeholders

Building Strategic Alliances accross the border

The SAP (continues..)

Opportunities and Pitfalls

GEF-IW Projects: Implementing the ISP Policy Framework The Incremental Nature of GEF-IW Projects

The Gaps in the Process: A potential setback Varying Levels of Organization: A key factor Gender-oriented Programs: Improving effectiveness

Conclusions