How Do We Really Solve the World's Water Challenge? / Skoll World Forum

Thank you Skoll World Forum for publishing some of my thoughts about the end game for the global safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) challenge...

Please do review this piece, and I very much look forward to your thoughts: 

How Do We Really Solve the World's Water Challenge?

I had the honor of chairing a session on Sustainable Water Solutions and the Rule of Law at the recent World Justice Forum IV in The Hague. During the vigorous two hour dialogue, it became clear that the street between water and rule of law runs both ways: A solid rule of law foundation will likely enhance the sustainability and scalability of water programs by increasing collaboration with and leadership from governments, and effective water programs will fortify rule of law by strengthening the social contract between citizens and their governments.

I spent years implementing democracy and governance programs in Africa on behalf of the U.S. government, and jumped at the opportunity to build this bridge between that world and my current water portfolio – two seemingly distinct development sectors. In framing the panel, I positioned rule of law – broadly defined, as in Wikipedia’s “authority and influence of law in society” – as an enabler, as a catalyst, of sustainable, institutionalized progress toward all global development challenges. On the flipside, I also see more progress on water challenges as one of many ways to strengthen the rule of law. For example, the most interesting question asked during the opening plenary of the World Justice Forum was “Is there a primary school for rule of law, or does one have to wait until graduate school to learn about it?” I assert that there is indeed a primary school for the rule of law: a village water committee anywhere in the world. The first experience many people – especially women – have in the developing world with rule of law and with participatory democracy is via their participation on local committees designed to identify and sustainably address local challenges. Tip O’Neill, a famous American politician, said “All politics is local.” Well, so are development challenges and solutions, especially those related to water. So that village water committee in rural India is a primary school for rule of law. An HIV support group in South Africa is a primary school for rule of law, solving its own community challenges, often alongside its government. A women’s neighborhood group focused on sanitation in Nairobi or Mexico City is a primary school for rule of law, as are local school boards, housing committees, and the like.

Water challenges at local, national, and transboundary levels all offer individuals an opportunity to strengthen the Social Contract between themselves and their governments. To achieve universal coverage of safe drinking water on the planet, in the compressed timeframe for which U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy advocated at the Forum, governments must work hand-in-hand with their constituents.

Here are a handful of rule of law / water solutions underway, and worth tracking and supporting:

• Community water boards by the thousands are becoming stronger throughout Latin America with the help of la Fundación Avina, making safe water more accessible to millions of Latin Americans, and at the same time creating more open, democratic societies.
• Rule of law is making water more accessible and safer across the globe: e.g., cities are adding rainwater harvesting to building codes in India, and municipal development plans are incorporating community sanitation facilities in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
• The Nile Basin Initiative continues to strengthen the capacity of the Nile’s riparian states to stay ahead of the water conflict predicted by many for the region.
• Water For People’s Everyone Forever effort focuses first and foremost on the interaction between citizens and their governments, with the international community playing a catalytic role; this will eventually obviate the need for any outside assistance.
• The Sanitation and Water for All Partnership attracts Finance Ministers to its High Level Meeting every two years. Stronger political will makes it possible for those Finance Ministers to do what they already want to do: increase budgets and strengthen policies for water in their countries by making and meeting tangible, time-bound commitments.
• Civil society organizations across the developing world are now using this toolkit “How to Campaign on Water and Sanitation Issues During an Election” to make sure that elected leaders have committed to tackling water challenges long before their terms in office. This toolkit should be used in every election tracked by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems.

The water challenges across the globe are grave. But they are solvable, and being solved by communities and governments as I write. My ambition is that rule of law and water communities will find more ways to work together across a number of platforms, and that both communities will emerge stronger from those collaborative efforts.

Skoll World Forum 2013: Where Have I Been the Last Decade?

 

Having spent the better part of last week in Oxford at the tenth running of the Skoll World Forum, my first thought was “Where have I been the last ten years – under a rock? It took me a decade to figure out that this is my tribe?”

A few quick reactions on the flight home:

Thinking: There is more genuine, on-the-fly thinking at this event than at any other I have attended recently, perhaps ever. I don’t often do well when there are over six people involved in a conversation. But even with over 900 attending the Forum, there was ample opportunity for quiet sidebar conversations, legitimate interactions with the panelists, time to then digest and respond, and a clear path to remain in contact online and off. It strikes me that Skoll is the one talkshop who takes seriously the perpetual recommendations about big conferences: more time for networking (there was plenty), thinking (nonstop), unscripted conversations (from well before the start to after the Forum ended), and opportunities for participants to get their messages heard (informal, delegate-led lunch sessions – well done, Anna Demant  - and topic-specific breakfast gatherings). One example I’d offer is The Evolving Role of Media in Social Progress, powerfully and unobtrusively chaired by Alberto Ibarguen of the Knight Foundation, who had his hands full with David Bornstein (Dowser Media), Peter Koechley (Upworthy), Pat Mitchell (Paley Center for Media) and Joaquin Alvarado (Center for Investigative Reporting). A close second was Not So Strange Bedfellows: Influencers and Enablers though I remain unconvinced of the forced dichotomy between the two.

Risk: Most folks out to save the world say they welcome heightened levels of risk, and my role has been at times to call their bluff. This is only my first year at Skoll, but I sense more real risk-taking on the part of the conference organizers, the delegates, and Skoll Foundation itself. It’s less about “OK to fail once, just don’t do it again,” and more akin to Thomas Edison’s “I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb.” Risk, failure, extreme openness – all are welcome at Skoll. I went to the Skoll World Forum looking for social innovations that will help minimize the risk that political leaders all over the world must take to prioritize what they already want to do (i.e. provide basic social goods like water and health to their people). In my work in strengthening political will for water and sanitation around the world, there are a lot more failures than successes, but the successes – when they happen – truly make a difference. Where politics meets global development challenges is a risky road even at Skoll, but I found the most receptive, interested, and helpful audience of any such convening.

Creativity: the secret to creativity is not necessarily to create anything new. Creativity may simply involve pushing and pulling together extant pieces of a puzzle in new configurations. To prepare for the Forum I read Raising the Hunley. The Hunley was the world’s first attack submarine, sunk off the coast of South Carolina in 1863. Although we don’t know yet exactly how the Hunley sunk, all the pieces of the puzzle are likely there. Nautical archaeologists need simply to put those pieces together in different, creative combinations to figure out the answer. Inspired by another Forum participant (thanks, Gannon of Tostan), I was struck by the parallels to the global safe drinking water and sanitation challenge. We do not for the most part need to invent anything new to accomplish 100% access to safe drinking water and sanitation for everyone on the planet. We have done it already in many parts of the world (so just try to tell me it’s not solvable). To get to the remaining 800m or so, we need to find new, creative ways to configure and amplify what we already have. I work at an advocacy organization because, to misquote Al Gore, "You can't just change lightbulbs. You have to change the laws." The real accelerators of longterm, systemic change are upstream. The design of the Skoll World Forum intrigued me well before I arrived, and the event indeed proved to be less about direct service provision (water, ARVs, schoolbooks, laptops), and more about creative ways to create the type of systemic, empowering change for which we all strive.

Disruption: On a related note, I’m not entirely convinced that “Disruption” is a suitable theme for the entire conference. One doesn’t need to throw everything out the window to be creative. A revolution is not necessarily required. The best thing to do may be the simplest: increase the RPM of the evolutionary process which will lead to success at scale in a compressed timeframe. In my work, creativity leads to more effective upstream activity at the political level; this leads to important, sustainable changes in service delivery, e.g. passing legislation in India to allow (or mandate!) rainwater harvesting in Indian cities to adapt to climate change and urbanization. At times this is highly disruptive but it does not have to be.

To be sure, the event did have its downs: A couple of the plenary speeches were subpar (do we actually need plenaries anymore?). One panel on foreign assistance – initially quite encouraging - deteriorated into a whining session about how wasteful (stronger words were used) all foreign assistance is, oblivious to the pointed questions of audience members looking for solutions (come on, guys - more light, less tunnel). An awardee or two caused a bit of cringing throughout the New Theatre on George Street (but one can never avoid that sort of thing, and it was actually pretty fun). And some of the sessions were a bit too techno-utopian for my taste. Technology is not always the answer, and social entrepreneurs will not succeed in the absence of a healthy enabling environment, the responsibility for which lies squarely in the hands of the elected leadership of any given country.

It’s really too early for suggestions for next year, but a couple:

• Skoll World Forum 2014: Inspired by Ken Brecher (I literally held my breath through his talk), next year’s theme could well be “Let’s Just See How Strong We Are.” Let’s make next year’s Skoll World Forum slightly less about tech- and entrepreneur-driven scalability and slightly more about scale. Ask me more about that.
• Get stronger with Cisco at continuing the conversations throughout the year. The value of these conversations can be amplified with a bit of support from Skoll throughout the calendar year.
• More Rwandan drummers, and invite me for 2014!

Skoll World Forum thoughts... / Policy Innovation and Political Risk

 

 Why am I at the Skoll World Forum?

 

In the 1930s: U.S. President Roosevelt was approached by groups of labor leaders who asked him to enact certain progressive, pro-labor policies. President Roosevelt already agreed with what those labor leaders were asking him to do, but told them that it wasn't politically possible for him to enact those changes yet. He said "Your job is to go out there, and MAKE me do it." So they did, and thousands of labor actions later, President Roosevelt was able to enact those policies which he already wanted to support.

 

Today: Every political leader in the world wants to prioritize basic education, health, water/sanitation, land rights, gender equity for his/her constituents. How can we make it possible for those political leaders to do what they already want to do?

 

I am at Skoll looking for social innovations that will help us minimize the risk that political leaders all over the world must take to prioritize what they would already like to do (i.e. provide basic social goods).

 

I run WASH Advocates, an advocacy and lobbying group in Washington DC entirely dedicated to the world safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene challenge. I have chosen to work there, because, to misquote Al Gore, "You can't just change lightbulbs. You have to change the laws." The real accelerators of longterm, systemic change are upstream. This convening at Oxford is particularly interesting to me, because this event is less about direct service provision (water, ARVs, schoolbooks, laptops), and more about the type of systemic, empowering change for which we all strive.

 

Upstream activity at the political level leads to important, sustainable changes in service delivery, e.g. changing building codes in Brazil to allow group sanitation facilities, or passing legislation in India to allow (or mandate!) rainwater harvesting in Indian cities to adapt to climate change and urbanization.

 

Over the coming days I hope to attend the most relevant sessions, and meet delegates interested in strengthening political will country by country. Basically, I'd like to meet with folks at SWF who think that politicians are actually part of the solution, not just part of the problem.

Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship - Water For People's Ned Breslin WINS

All right Skoll Foundation!  Great call.

Water For People’s CEO, Ned Breslin, has been named one of only four winners of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2011. This award is given every year to small number of social entrepreneurs who are solving the world’s most pressing problems. The Skoll Award includes a core support grant to the organization to be paid over three years and a noncash award to the social entrepreneur that is presented at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. To be considered for the Award, organizations must meet very specific Awards criteria: winners have a tested and proven social innovation that addresses an issue of critical importance and is positioned for large-scale impact. In addition to receiving the award, Ned will also participate in a discussion on Water Scarcity planned for Friday at the Skoll World Forum. For a complete list of events and a link to live streaming and videos of the event, please visit http://www.skollworldforum.org/.  
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And from Water For People: "Ned and all of us at Water For People take our commitment to sustainable water and sanitation programming seriously, and the Skoll Award is a valuable reminder that we have a tremendous responsibility to those whose lives we are intervening in to ensure our work stands the test of time." WELL said.

Congratulations to the entire organization!