Course: Introduction to Water Diplomacy

Nov 9, 2015 - Dec 6, 2015 | United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)
Online
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Water is every living organism’s common denominator. Societies depend on it for their own subsistence and growth, and go great lengths to ensure water secure futures. But freshwater is not, in essence and in practice, an egalitarian resource and its accessibility to some often means inaccessibility to others. With unprecedented population growth, new emerging economies and the effects of climate change, pressures on our finite freshwater resources are increasing. Meanwhile, the ability of some nations to secure their aqueous requirements is being severely challenged, causing great and legitimate concern that tensions around water hotspots will intensify among water users. Yet, water holds an immense potential for cooperation which has still to be understood and empowered. Water is and will remain at the heart of international peace and security, the defense of human rights and the imperative for sustainable development paths. An increasingly strong and coordinated response is therefore expected from the international community in order to raise awareness, mitigate conflict, and build cooperation from the growing challenges posed by water between sovereign states.Event ObjectivesThe purpose of this course will first be to raise awareness on the current state of freshwater resources worldwide and the need for adequate diplomatic solutions to stimulate cooperation around the way the resource is managed. It will provide knowledge resources, circumstantial experiences, and a cadre of tools to water-relevant stakeholders so as to enhance their ability to assess, prevent, and respond to the tensions arising from situations of water scarcity and mismanagement worldwide. This approach will be relevant to the great water stressors of our time and will serve to promote both short and longer term cooperation through shared benefits, inclusive multi-stakeholder agreements, and sustainable transboundary institution building. Learning ObjectivesAt the end of the course, participants should be able to:

• Describe major contemporary stressors influencing freshwater availability and their impact on achieving national security goals;
• Identify water's potential for conflict and identify some of the world’s main water "hotspots";
• Recognize water’s cooperation potential and the benefits to be drawn from collaborative transboundary water management between state actors;
• Analyze how diplomatic methods based on dialogue may be used to encourage mutually-beneficial problem-to-solution processes;
• Define the importance and structure of transnational water management institutions in their role to consolidate and sustain the benefits of cooperation around water.