Making Sustainable Development Operational: Integrated Capacity Building for the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector in Mexico

Empirical understanding of sustainable development is improved by appreciating its dependence on integrated capacity building that can link sectors, social groups and disciplines together. An interdisciplinary team has been gaining practical experience of how to improve the socio-economic and institutional capacity of the urban water supply and sanitation sector in Mexico, a country with problems common to many rapidly-developing countries. Carried out with multi-stakeholder working groups, strategic capacities were identified to strengthen six components: (1) political and financial support; (2) human resources; (3) information resources; (4) regulations and compliance; (5) basic infrastructure; and (6) the market for support products and services. Three pilot cities were used to test the process under diverse geophysical and cultural conditions. Results of the conceptualization, diagnosis and planning stages are presented, and are being used to guide implementation. The process is adaptable to other countries, and to other natural resource and development sectors, such as soil and biodiversity conservation, energy and agriculture.