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	Table of Contents
p. 10 of 13 BACK | NEXT I. The Context II. The Need For a Comprehensive Water Policy III. The Policy A. An Overview B. National Policies and Reforms C. Water Resource Management D. Improving Water Services E. Conserving Water F. Promoting Regional Cooperation G. Fostering Participation H. Improving Governance IV. The Policy and ADB's Poverty Reduction Strategy V. Getting the Policy to Work

Water For All: The Water Policy of the Asian Development Bank : III. The Policy

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G. Fostering Participation

52. Concept. Given water’s unique life-sustaining characteristics, participation is a key ingredient in its conservation and management. Over time, ADB has recognized that communities are at the heart of effective water management. They are the de facto resource managers and protectors of the environment. Consumer associations in urban areas and water users’ groups or irrigation cooperatives in rural areas are being increasingly involved in management both in ADB-assisted projects and others. Community-based water quality monitoring is yet another dimension where communities are addressing social equity concerns. ADB will promote participation in the management of water resources at all levels and collaborate in fashioning partnerships between governments, private agencies, NGOs, and communities. It will encourage and respect local and national ownership of pragmatic solutions to consultation, participation, and partnerships. Getting the poor to participate, and mainstreaming them into community thought and action, will be a key area of ADB work. Box 4 shows how participation can make a difference.

53. Strategy. Participation is necessary to ensure that conflicting interests are harmonized and that inequities are removed. Communities and individuals that are underserved – including the urban poor and the socially excluded, such as ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples –need to be mainstreamed, ADB will promote the recentering of such communities and individuals. Given the essential nature of private sector participation, without which there will be little infusion of capital and expertise, and of much needed technology, ADB will seek to draw private enterprise into participating in a higher quality of water service provision. Simultaneously, ADB recognizes that women are important water users, clients, and beneficiaries, as well as managers of water for family nutrition, hygiene, health, and community activities. Equally, women are development agents, professionals, and decision-makers in water sector activities. ADB will strengthen women’s ability to participate more effectively through discrete programs targeted at educating women, empowering them, and enabling their involvement in community-based decision making. Water projects supported by ADB will incorporate carefully designed components that promote the participation of civil society in identifying needs and issues, designing solutions, and establishing mechanisms for monitoring and dispute resolution. Tools, including guidelines for the design and implementation of successful participatory processes in water sector activities, will be developed.

54. Gender. To ensure that water sector activities are gender-responsive at policy and institutional levels, ADB will promote the integration of gender concerns in policies, plans, programs, and projects. Not enough progress has been made in this area in the region and more gender-specific data is required in the water sector. Although gender issues and solutions in water supply, sanitation, and hygiene are comparatively well researched and implemented, good practices in connection with water and land rights, and in resource management and conservation, have not been widely adopted.²⁰ The key elements in a gender approach to planning, implementing, and evaluating water sector activities are (i) including a gender analysis at the design stage, (ii) incorporating explicit gender equity provisions in the objectives and scope of the activity, and (iii) disaggregating data in monitoring and management information systems along gender lines. These elements will be incorporated in ADB’s water sector operations.

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