For the final version of the Budapest Water Summit Youth Statement, please visit http://www.generationblue.at/dms/genblue/News/das-war-Budapest-Water-Summit-2013/BudapestWaterSummit_Youth-Statement/BudapestWaterSummit_Youth%20Statement.pdf?1=1
STATEMENT FOR THE YOUTH FORUM OF THE BUDAPEST WATER SUMMIT 2013
1. Why is this youth statement important? This document captures the following outputs:
1) Intergenerational equity
2) Fresh perspective
3) Building connectivity by expanding upon existing processes
This youth statement contributes to the five themes of the 2013 Budapest Water Summit;
WASH, IWRM, governance, green economy, financing water and sanitation SDGs.
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2. Youth Statement
We will gather at the Youth Forum, in the frame of the World Water Summit in Budapest, while:
- Acknowledging that water is inherently a connector of environmental, economic and social uses.
- Considering the vital importance of access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).
- Recognizing that the W in WASH captures broader water issues beyond sanitation and health and links to other SDG targets, for example food and energy.
- Considering that youth, children and other vulnerable persons die every year as a consequence of lack of sanitation and access to fresh water; and the need for a process to ensure action is taken on commitments made.
- Recognizing the diversity of the youth and the work of many youth organizations in defending the rights of people to water and sanitation.
- Calling for youth processes to be encouraged and supported in thought, action or in other ways possible, from the international to the individual level.
2.1 Universal access to WASH Our Concerns:
We believe that all human beings should hold the right to access adequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene and should not be considered merely users or beneficiaries. National and local governments everywhere around the world, not just the Global South, share the responsibility of ensuring access as there is no country with a100 per cent coverage. We appeal the international community to see through the completion of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and adopt equally ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for a world in which every person’s water and sanitation needs are fulfilled.
Recommended Priorities: ● Prioritize access to water and sanitation for children, youth and the vulnerable. ● Encourage youth led innovations in the WASH sector. ● Use locally sourced materials and knowledge for low cost, sustainable, and accessible water and sanitation solutions. ● Respect the context and facilitate the empowerment of the local community. ● Overcome the taboos associated with sanitation and the challenges of financing by reframing sanitation as an economic opportunity. ● Consider alternative pricing structures (e.g. progressive block tariffs). ● Organize meaningful and practical activities and competitions to aware people of the importance of water and ways to protect it. ● Basic training for hygiene promotion (e.g. menstrual hygiene). ● Sanitation as a service means we need to think beyond toilets to include maintenance of the system. ● Treating wastewater and sludge for the sake of downstream water quality. ● Reframing waste as a resource. This means safely processing it and creating economic opportunities.
2.2 Integrated water resources management for the 21st century Our Concerns:
Natural water systems do not coincide with administrative boundaries. Youth can bridge gaps and facilitate the cooperation needed for Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Governments, civilians, companies, water users and knowledge institutions should cooperate not only to ensure that people have accessible and adequate potable water supply. Moreover, we should ensure that scientific standards are enshrined in IWRM plans so that healthy ecosystems are guaranteed for current and future generations. A renewed commitment to adopt a multi-scale and interdisciplinary approach to water science is necessary in order to understand the complex and dynamic nature of the global water system.
Recommended Priorities: • Integrate youth groups and perspectives in policy ma
king processes related to water and provide platforms to engage in capacity building; special emphasis should be placed on the Global South. Where youth councils do not exist steps must be taken to set them up. • Commit to minimum environmental flows, recognizing local biodiversity requirements and encouraging biomimicry designs that respect and emulate natural environments. • Train the next generation of water scientists and practitioners in integrated thinking and management, making use of cross-scale analysis and integrated system design. And, encourage the ideas of young professionals - their jargon aside. • Work towards creating awareness about the fragility of our water resources and introducing the concept of IWRM at an early age. Permanent inclusion of sessions in elementary education about the boundaryless character of water systems and the applicable policies regulating their uses. • Enable participatory processes that are accessible to different stakeholders (i.e. language, organization, scheduling etc.). • Foster links within universities between relevant sectors and disciplines to achieve mutual understanding early on thereby making interdisciplinary solutions for the benefit all parties possible.
2.3 Good water governance Our Concerns: Most political, social, economic and administrative systems in place needs to be revised to better develop and manage water resources and the delivery of WASH services. Top-down approaches in decision-making have clearly proven their inefficiency in developing a sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Good water governance requires mostly the representation of all interests through bottom-up and demand driven approaches, better coordination and strengthen capacities. In that framework, young people are special stakeholders. They can speak on behalf of many whose voice is under-represented. Youth should be given the opportunity to address dynamic governance challenges and be encouraged to participate in solving water related issues. A truly democratic process of water governance must take place, in which the interests of the youth are taken into account and asymmetries in decision-making are addressed once and for all.
Recommended Priorities: • We strongly urge that an intergovernmental process be established to monitor and regulate the implementation of progress on water related SDGs. In addition, we request assistance to help youth hold their governments accountable by supporting the creation of youth advocacy campaigns and/or committees to conduct follow-up on WASH commitments. • Corruption should cease to be a taboo topic but rather a point of serious investigation. • Existing civil society organizations should include youth in their programs and teach them about their WASH rights. • Involve youth in improving information access and reduce information asymmetries (quantity, quality, type) between different stakeholders. For instance, youth can improve water monitoring for utilities by mapping using mobile phones and can be a link between stakeholders. • Youth can help bridge science and policy gaps by promoting knowledge sharing. • Businesses, governments and institutions are encouraged to recognise and reinforce the potential of young people for their organisations: various forms of training (internship, on the job, apprenticeships, workshops, etc) and intergenerational exchange programs. • Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child makes it clear that participation is a substantive right of all children and young people. We envision to claim this right where we can be of additional value, for instance in the form of a permanent desk for youth representatives in high-level meetings and decision-making bodies such as River Basin Organizations, forums and local policy planning meetings. Young people can function as observers, vigilant defenders of justice, connectors, coordination agents and agents of change. • Recognizing the s
piritual importance of water bodies, including holy rivers and the values shared by users both upstream and downstream.
2.4 Green economy for blue water Our Concerns: The value of water lies in it being an irreplaceable life-giving resource. From a strictly financial lens this means potentially large profits given the relative inelasticity of the demand for water. However, respect for the cultural, spiritual, environmental, and “positive externalities” associated with water uses has yet to be adequately addressed. Knowing the full value of water to our economy, our society, and our environments will produce solutions for the greatest mutual benefit. Understanding the interdependence of these three themes will help seize more opportunities and reap more benefits from sustainable water management practices. Water-energy-food security nexus: There is a need to integrate water in development and sectoral policies, in particular agricultural, rural and urban development and energy related policies, to promote efficient water use throughout all productive sectors. And to make new sectors economically productive. Sanitation can support small-scale entrepreneurialism and basic livelihoods, for instance it can be reframed as an opportunity to capture nutrients and resources.
Recommended Priorities: • Capture water’s positive externalities by expanding upon the standard set of quantitative financial tools (e.g. temporal, spatial, ecological measurements; visualizations mapping intangible values; and triplebottom-line accounting) • Define efficiency based on needs and not quantities (i.e. why is the water being used?). Then explore economic opportunities in demand management. • Balance between full cost accounting in public and private water services with the needs and abilities of local communities and environments. Financial sustainability requires taking into account local realities. • In this regard, governments and the private sector must facilitate research and incentives to promote water efficiency and water quality monitoring technologies. • Encourage the independent perspective and skills that young people can bring to the table. Governments and industry can promote professions in the water sector to youth by providing scholarships, internships, accessible knowledge development programs, and support youth-led initiatives to advocate effective water management. • Enable space and process for local communities to spearhead creating and adopting physical and social technologies around water management solutions (vs. having to adopt imposed solutions)
2.5 Investment in and financing of the implementation of a water and sanitation Our Concerns: Attempts to improve water and sanitation services have often been undertaken as “good works”, or to “improve the public image of the service provider or public officials”, rather than as part of a strategy to provide sustainable services. A key constraint is the capital expenditure and the risks involved. Critically, investments are considered to be particularly risky, because of assumed low collection rates (or not at all) and limited revenues.
Recommended Priorities: • Fair, equitable and sustainable cost recovery strategies for a sustainable financing of WASH. Cost recovery must also be sought with a best possible use of tariffs, taxes and transfers to cover needs related to infrastructure development and extension, operation and maintenance. • Improve use of finances through South - South and North - South knowledge exchange and cooperation. • Involvement of young people in community based sustainable solutions. This enables youth entrepreneurship and encourages learning by doing. • Youth Forum can be used to disseminate the technical information about WASH solutions and to assist in implementation at small scale/individual and community. • Water and sanitation promotion and leveraging resources. Effective use of financial resources from all sources, including encouraging international financial institutions, development partners and beneficiary countries to increase support for water management, water supply and sanitation. We also will resolve to lever more effective and diversified support, credit and financial management systems that are easily accessible and affordable.
Commitment: As young people, we acknowledge our potential and responsibility and commit ourselves to contribute to this goal with our energy, creativity and enthusiasm. We also commit ourselves to work in partnership with other youth organizations, sharing the knowledge and skills gained during this forum. We commit ourselves to play a multiplying role when back in our various countries.