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Initiative

also available in Spanish

SEI Initiative on Water Beyond Boundaries

Access to water is the greatest risk to global prosperity and addressing the SDGs. Policymakers face multiple challenges regarding water management and must grapple with both an uncertain future and competing interests, while also ensuring there is enough water for people, cities, agriculture and ecosystems. Water Beyond Boundaries will introduce new ways of thinking about sustainable water planning to respond to these challenges.

Active project

2020–2025

Initiative contact

Tania Santos / tania.santos@sei.org

The status quo approach to addressing challenges in water planning is Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). In the past three decades, IWRM has had a profound impact on water planning practices but has not yielded the level of outcomes required to achieve sustainable water for all, falling short on three levels: space, time and scope. The result has been policies that can inadvertently create conflict or ignore gaps in water management.

Through three new pillars (teleconnections, early ecosystem consideration, multi interest- multi participatory approaches) applied in the Magdalena (Colombia) and Mekong (Asia) watersheds, places where SEI has a presence and has developed a strong reputation and body of work, Water Beyond Boundaries (WBB) will introduce new ways of thinking about sustainable water planning.

Our five-year vision is to respond to the central role of water in the global sustainability agendas by addressing key existing gaps in water management to set it on a more equitable and sustainable trajectory.

WBB will also have an important connection to poverty alleviation and gender and social equity. New analytical tools will enable water planners and policymakers to identify inequalities at multiple scales and dimensions of water use, to identify all stakeholders, and to consider innovative management practices that address inequalities.

SEI will identify and analyse the factors that contribute to reduced water access for women and vulnerable groups. This may include inequalities related to water rights, land ownership, and decision-making. Policies that are environmentally sustainable and equitable require a better understanding of connections beyond the watershed, inclusive participatory approaches, and the water needs of ecosystems. WBB aims to deliver that knowledge and the tools to use it.

WBB infographic: SEI

Current contributors

Tania Santos

Research Fellow

SEI Latin America

Thanapon Piman
Thanapon Piman

Senior Research Fellow

SEI Asia

Natalia Ortiz

Communications Officer

Communications

SEI Latin America

Profile picture of Jack Sieber
Jack Sieber

Senior Scientist

SEI US

Laura Forni

Acting Water Program Director

SEI US

Cláudia Coleoni

Research Associate

SEI Latin America

Profile picture of Uttam Ghimire
Uttam Ghimire

Research Associate

SEI Asia

Doug Chalmers

Scientist

SEI US

Ridhi Saluja

Research Fellow

SEI Asia

Satish Prasad

Research Fellow

SEI Asia

Biljana Macura
Biljana Macura

Senior Research Fellow and Team Lead

SEI Headquarters

Sushmita Mandal

Senior Research Fellow

SEI Asia

Camilo Andrés González

Research Assistant

SEI Latin America

Nhilce N. Esquivel
Nhilce N. Esquivel

Research Associate

SEI Headquarters

Former contributors

Leonie Pearson

SEI Affiliated Researcher

SEI Asia

Alison Dyke

Research Fellow

SEI York

Ylva Ran
Ylva Ran

Research Fellow

SEI Headquarters

Héctor Angarita
Héctor Angarita

SEI Affiliated Researcher

SEI Latin America

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