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Last update:
September 11, 2007
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 Asia Pacific Water Forum
Outline of Recommendations for Key Results Area 4:
Monitoring of Investment and Results |
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The Asian and Pacific Region extends over a total area of about 36 million km2 or 27 per cent of the world's land area (1997). With nearly 60 per cent of the world's population and over 60 per cent of the world's irrigated land, the Region is more densely populated and more intensively cultivated than any other Regions. Asia-Pacific is known for its highest potential renewable water resources in the world. However, in view of the large population, the region has the lowest potential water availability per capita.
The Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific pointed out that the Asia-Pacific region has made major strides in economic and social progress during the past half-century and per capita income growth has been much faster than elsewhere in the world. However, the overall impressive economic achievements together with the rapid growth in the population have put increasing pressure on the limited availability of freshwater resources in the Region. Furthermore, the developing countries in the region with economic policy liberalization is resulting in significant changes in economic structure in many countries, including substantial changes in farming systems, and also resulting in rapidly mounting pressure on the freshwater resources. The increasing complexity of water resources management in the region has called for further improvement in investment and water resources management policy reform. Effective monitoring of investment and results of policy reforms is increasingly recognized as a prerequisite for effective and efficient management of water resources for sustainable economic growth and sustainable development.
As the future becomes more difficult to predict, and change is faster, there is an increased emphasis on monitoring results and outcomes to strategically orient intervention. Monitoring is beneficial because of the following contribution to improvement of water resources management:
i) Monitoring provides a structured approach for focusing on strategies, objectives, and performance indicators
ii) In the case of system status to form the foundation for IWRM, monitoring is expected to lead to improvement foresight and anticipation; improves ability to detect change, enables rapid change of course corrections
iii) Monitoring data will facilitate identification of both optimal and less-effective practices
iv) Monitoring will enable prioritizing the allocation of program resources and assists budget preparation
v) Monitoring provides a mechanism for reporting program performance to upper management
vi) Monitoring is expected to facilitate the involvement of key stakeholders, including civil societies in the planning process.
The scope of systems monitored, both in terms of status and performance monitoring, can vary widely, ranging from narrowly technical systems, such as pollutant levels in a river, to wide ranging monitoring involving ecological and socio-economic indicators in a major watershed. The extent of the monitoring in the case of performance monitoring systems will relate directly to the objectives of the intervention, which in turn, will be based on a legal mandate.
In spite of the importance of the monitoring function mentioned above, it was found in a series of studies undertaken by UNESCAP during the period from 2002 to 2004 that in most countries, the monitoring of investment and results were weak or not systematically in place. This fact led difficulties in mobilizing resources for investment and in appropriate policy formulation for improvement of water resources management.
However, there exists quite a number of good practices in the region on monitoring of investment and results in water resources management. Further improvement of these good practices for possible expansion to cover the entire water sector in a country or replication in other countries is of priority, if water resources management in the region is to be strengthened to meet the increasing challenge for sustained economic growth and sustainable development of the region.
Most of the current practices do not cover the entire spectrum of water investment from the following four components: public sector, private sector, foreign investment through ODA (official development assistance) and FDI (foreign direct investment), and the population. From the studies of UNESCAP mentioned earlier, it was found that most of the activities on monitoring of investment were concentrated on specific technical sectors such as water supply and sanitation, irrigated agriculture, hydropower, navigation, for which the most common focuses were investment from the public sector.
There existed several examples in which the monitoring of investment covered the entire spectrum of investment: public, private, foreign investment and the population. These examples included the cases on formulation of policies and strategies on improvement of water resources management for priority areas, mostly river basins, or water sectoral review.
The above experiences also pointed to the fact that the monitoring of investment is necessary for policy reforms and thus needs to go hand in hand with monitoring results.
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