How do we move from ideas to action? The role of the HELP programme

Abstract

An overview of the integrated water resources management (IWRM) process is provided as well as an outline of the Hydrology, Environment, Life, and Policy (HELP) programme's actions over the next 5 years as a follow‐up to the recommendations of the Kalmar Symposium of 2002. Most of HELP's implementation, however, will be within the HELP basins themselves, which is consistent with the ‘bottom‐up’ approach of the programme. HELP's niche in contributing to the IWRM process is by defining knowledge gaps and acting via a global network of basins. Through the involvement and support of stakeholders, longer‐term visionary values of research with subsequent benefits to society may be more quickly realized.

Notes

Correspondence Address: Mike Bonell, Hydrological Processes and Climate, UNESCO Division of Water Sciences, 1 rue Miollis, F‐75732 Paris Cedex 15, France. Email: [email protected]

Examples include the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Agenda 21, Chapter 18 (A/CONF.151/126 Vol. II, August 1992) following the Dublin Conference on Water and the Environment, 26–31 January 1992, the World Water Forums (Marrakech, Morocco, 1997; The Hague, the Netherlands, 2000; Kyoto, Japan, 2003); the 6th Session of the Commission for Sustainable Development, New York, 20 April–1 May 1998, E/CN.17/1998/2 Strategic Approaches to Freshwater Management; and the World Water Council, 2000.

See, for example, the examples cited in the reflections on the 50‐year international search for integrated water management by White (1998); the US Agency for International Development's ‘synthesis approach’ for improving water management in Asia from 1979, compiled by Lowdermilk (1981); and the ‘integrated river basin management’ concept mentioned by Burton & Boisvert (1991) and Burton (1995).

See the HELP website: http://www.unesco.org/water/ihp/HELP

In collaboration with the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) and the Centre for International Forestry Research (CGIAR–CIFOR) entitled Forests–Water–People in the Humid Tropics: Past, Present and Future Hydrological Research for Integrated Land and Water Management, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 30 July–4 August 2000.

Ford Foundation, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Karnataka Forest Department (KFD) and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development (CISED) (UNESCO, 2003).

See endnote 3.

See endnote 3.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mike Bonell

Correspondence Address: Mike Bonell, Hydrological Processes and Climate, UNESCO Division of Water Sciences, 1 rue Miollis, F‐75732 Paris Cedex 15, France. Email: [email protected]