NARBO

▪ What?

A roadmap is a concise, holistic, sequenced action plan.

▪ Why?

An action­oriented, IWRM­based river basin development roadmap is a powerful tool for social, economic and environmental progress. It can provide a clear and agreed sense of direction, illustrate the relations between various development initiatives, and assure that gaps and overlaps are sorted out. Also, the roadmap provides guidance on implementation.

▪ How?

The following steps may be considered, as relevant from case to case:

• Get an overview of existing documentation. Conduct a screening of study reports and other documents. Prepare a synthesis of management modalities, including the national socio­economic planning framework, and the role of the RBO (if any)
• Get an overview of information sources and stakeholders (with a particular view to identification of development opportunities and supportive development initiatives). Consider how to liaise with stakeholders
• Prepare a small activity list - a 'roadmap for the roadmap' ­ indicating what to do and who does what
• Identify, in consultation with informants and stakeholders, a vision for the basin, and a preliminary set of operational development goals in support of achieving the vision (cf. examples provided below). This will form a preliminary framework for the roadmap, the purpose being to provide a reference and a focus for the continued work
• Conduct a stakeholder consultation workshop on development priorities and scoping, facilitated in order to add 'open­mindedness' to the scoping process (looking ahead as much as over the shoulder)
• Adjust the draft framework and prepare a draft roadmap with specific development initiatives (structural as well as non­structural). Indicate implementing bodies ­ 'who does what?'. Please refer to the examples provided below
• Conduct a stakeholder consultation workshop for review of the draft, in support of its validity, adequacy, and implementation prospects. Conduct and adjust accordingly
• Check the roadmap for project cycle technicalities. Add these activities to the roadmap as required
• Prepare and circulate a final version
• Revise it when there os a need to do so

▪ Who?

The roadmap can conveniently be prepared by the RBO (if one exists), or otherwise by a dedicated coordination body with a relevant government mandate. (If there is no RBO, creating one may be considered as an element of the roadmap).

A close dialogue must be maintained with institutional and individual stakeholders, possibly including the private sector.

Implementation of the roadmap can be facilitated by the RBO, but many of its specific elements will be implemented by sector agencies, de­central administrative bodies, and others ­ who should therefore be involved in the planning.

▪ Guiding principles

as relevant from case to case:

• An IWRM perspective is applied, emphasizing a holistic, cross­sector, balanced, and sustainable water allocation in accordance with national development policies and priorities
• The roadmap may cover short­term and medium­term development initiatives in support of a long­term perspective. Its recommendations should be action­oriented and practical, with a viable implementation framework
• A strategic social/environmental assessment (SEA) can be required for the whole set of development initiatives, as well as screening of specific interventions (and full­blown EIAs as required). These activities can be included in the roadmap as an element for subsequent implementation
• The roadmap should be revised regularly, to adapt to new challenges, new opportunities, and new knowledge
• A framework for progress monitoring can be prepared separately

▪ Suggestions

as relevant from case to case:

• Scoping can be supported by scenario analysis, by SWOT analysis (of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), and/or by logframe analysis. A logframe analysis is not adequate in itself, however, since it tends to overlook dormant (potential) development opportunities ­ it looks at the trees as much as the forest
• Consider both structural and non­structural development needs and opportunities, in an economic, social, environmental and institutional perspective, as relevant in the context

• Big and small (expensive and inexpensive) elements can be included side by side. Sometimes they can add value to each other, and small development initiatives can have large benefits
• Include priority initiatives, and only those, but don't spend too much time on a detailed ranking
• The roadmap should preferably be self-sustaining. Assumptions on developments that are external to the roadmap - such as major national or regional infrastructure projects - should be duly observed. If some initiative is particularly risky, a preparatory study may be considered. On the other hand, a master plan or a feasibility study (or a roadmap!) serve no purposes in themselves - their usefulness depends on tangible outcomes 'on the ground'
• Where possible, indicate an implementing organization 'up front' for the different roadmap elements. It will in many cases be someone else than the RBO. It could be a public agency, a private company, or an NGO

This indicative outline is from CamboWP and CNMC (Mar 08)

This framework highlights IWRM at the basin level. A suitable extent of harmony with the national, provincial and commune levels of planning (and their governing development policies) should be aimed at, and a steady convergence should be pursued in the course of time.

Time horizons for planned achievements are not included but may be added if so desired. They are not necessary, though - a clear sense of direction is useful even if the time of arrival at the destination is uncertain.

• Improved access to safe water and sanitation
• Support in many ways to water-dependent rural livelihoods, including coordinated development of water, agriculture and fisheries
• Infrastructural development and trade facilitation
• Hydropower development
• Tourism development
• Support to risk preparedness and management: Floods, drought, pests, climate variability
• Human resources development; consolidation and expansion of management capacity at the province level, the commune level, and the water user group level
• A functional framework and modalities for basin-level IWRM

This more comprehensive example has been extracted from Annex 2 of ADB (Jan 07). This roadmap builds on an existing master plan and a set of preparatory studies

The development of a roadmap for the Citarum River Basin has followed the basic methodology of strategic planning.

Fundamentally, the approach has been to ask the following three questions:

• Where do we want to go (with water resource management in the basin)?
• Where are we now (that is, what are the existing issues/problems)?
• How can we get from where we are now to where we want to go (the 'road' we need to take)?

The key issues are well documented in a variety of documents produced in the last decade. The problems are numerous and cover a variety of areas, including severe deterioration of water quality, deforestation and degradation of upland catchments, mining of groundwater, and degradation of water control infrastructure. These problems have severe economic and social consequences to the people of the basin.

The roadmap itself is simply a set of strategies (and projects/actions to implement those strategies) that define the path between the present situation with respect to water resources in the basin and the desired outcomes (or vision) for the future – that is, what needs to be done to achieve the objectives. This has been achieved using the following 'vision-oriented' approach:

• Reaffirm and more clearly define a shared vision for the future of the basin (to 2020);
• Compare the status of water resources in the basin to the vision, in order to identify the strategic direction that needs to be taken (the 'road' so to speak);
• Formulate objectives in a number of key areas that would, if achieved, lead to fulfilment of the vision;
• Develop, for each key area, a set of interventions (projects and activities) that would, if successfully implemented, achieve the objectives.

Vision for the year 2021

A strategic framework was developed in consultation with a broad range of basin stakeholders to ensure that an integrated approach to the formulation of the roadmap would be ensured. This is represented in the 'house' diagram (below), where the vision for the basin is supported by activities in a number of key areas, five of which are seen to be 'pillars', with a foundation of two cross-cutting key areas – the 'foundation'.

Close to 70 interventions have been identified as necessary for the achievement of the objectives (and hence the vision) for the Citarum River Basin. These have come from a variety of sources. The costs that have been assumed for each these come from those sources (factored into 2006 dollar terms) and can only be considered as indicative.

Key area	Intervention	Main outputs/activities	Costs	Source
Institutions and planning for IWRM	(list interventions)	(list main outputs and activities)	xx.x mio USD
	Estimated total cost		xx.x mio USD
Water resource development and management	(list interventions)	(list main outputs and activities)	xx.x mio USD
	Estimated total cost		1936.2
Water sharing	(list interventions)	(list main outputs and activities)	xx.x mio USD
	Estimated total cost		0.9
Environmental protection	(list interventions)	(list main outputs and activities)	xx.x mio USD
	Estimated total cost		415.5
Disaster managemen	(list interventions)	(list main outputs and activities)	xx.x mio USD
	Estimated total cost		94.9
Community empowerment	(list interventions)	(list main outputs and activities)	xx.x mio USD
	Estimated total cost		13.3
Data and Information	(list interventions)	(list main outputs and activities)	xx.x mio USD
	Estimated total cost		9.6

▪ Institutions

1. Integrated management is a useful supplement, rather that a replacement of existing sector management - with its wealth of expertise
2. Similarly, river basin management is a useful supplement, rather that a replacement of management at other (higher or lower) levels
3. Involve and/or build on existing institutions (including existing coordination bodies) and existing planning procedures
4. Develop clear roles, clear rules, and capable and resourceful bodies that collaborate with each other
5. Pursue harmony between management levels (basin level, national level, sub-basin level, province level, community level, and irrigation scheme level)
6. Prefer de-central decison-making, where this is reasonable considering the scale of the decision, and subject to practical (capacity and knowledge-base) constraints
7. Build confidence between actors, and maintain creditable and functional conflict resolution instruments
8. Practice knowledge-building and knowledge-sharing, within and among river basins
9. Promote revenue generation and cost recovery, in pursuit of financial sustainability

▪ Goals and policies

10. Maintain a clear sense of direction, laid down in clear (although perhaps utopian) goal – perhaps independent from what is realistic in the short term. Example: 'Safe water for all'
11. Apply a holistic, integrated approach covering the entire basin and spanning across sectors
12. Note and exploit the powerful long-term synergies between economic growth, natural resource management and environmental preservation. Promote sustainable and transparent resource utilization - water, hydropower, forests, minerals, habitats, etc.
13. Seek balance between stakeholder interests: Upstream/downstream, instream/offstream, and local versus national interests (for example in connection with re-settlements)
14. Apply livelihood generation as a progress indicator in its own right (along with national economic growth, safe water and sanitation, poverty alleviation, etc). Pay particular attention to rural livelihoods
15. Prefer small steps to big ones, whenever the choice is open. There is always a risk of unexpected side effects
16. Involve the private sector with its powerful development agenda and potential. Apply gentle regulation to achieve a balance between immediate and long-term goals, and between private and public development priorities
17. Note the strong links between water resource management and land management. Promote zoning of land use, with a view to land ownership, land use potential, soil quality, access to water, habitat conservation, flood risk, pollution, and infrastructure
18. Consider the potential for development of tourism and recreation
19. Make regular reviews and updates of the development agenda, in timely response to new knowledge, new challenges, and new opportunities

▪ Management

20. Practice openness, dialogue, and active stakeholder involvement throughout the formulation and implementation of development goals and policies
21. Promote gender mainstreaming
22. Reduce corruption and self-interest; pay attention to the powerless and minorities; promote transparency and predictability throughout the public administration
23. Don't rely on perfect knowledge about the future. Base decisions on the 'best available knowledge at the time when the decision must be made' - possibly involving the concept of 'Total Economic Value'
24. Promote basinwide, real-time data management (flood levels, storage volumes, forest fires, etc)

▪ References

▪ Appendix: Scoping check list