Governance is a term that can be considered to be as old as humankind. From the early 1980s, governance, and increasingly, good governance, have permeated the national and international development discourses. The emergence of governance can be traced at the country level to a disgruntlement with the state-dominated models for economic and social development that were prevalent throughout the socialist bloc and most of the Third World countries in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

With the increasing complexity of the current political, economic, social, environmental and institutional issues which affect all societies, governance is often regarded as an umbrella concept that considers multifaceted processes where the societal goals are pursued with the interactions of all the interested actors in all specific fields of development. The process requires promotion of dialogues in terms of decision-making, and participation of multiple actors. A fundamental issue that is still to be resolved is how this multi-stakeholder participation in any decision-making process can be carried out cost-effectively and in a timely manner so that the results are not only near optimal but also socially acceptable.

It is important to note that governance is not synonymous with government. It is instead a complex process which considers, inter alia, multi-level participation, beyond the state, where decision-making includes not only public institutions, but also private sector, non-governmental organisations, and the society in general. Good governance requires the presence of transparency and accountability from all the concerned parties.

Because of its complexity, good governance does not just appear. It is the culmination of a multi-faceted long-term process that has to be carefully planned and nurtured. For good governance to develop, overall conditions and the general environment must be appropriate, parties concerned should be amenable to collective decision-making, effective and functional organisations need to be developed, and policy, legal and political frameworks should be suitable to the goals that are being pursued.

Governance within the context of water resources management has not been an exception to the overall global trend. An operational and implementable definition of water governance still has to be agreed upon. What now appears to be a fact is that there is an increasing recognition of the importance of adding more voices, responsibilities, transparency and accountability to the formal and informal organisations associated with water management as a whole. These requirements pertain not only to the governments, but also to the private sector, non-governmental organisations, and all other civil-society related groups.

Even though in the field of water management, governance has become a popular concept especially during the post-2000 period, there is still no accepted definition for this concept, or on how good governance can be achieved. In fact, an extensive literature review indicates that same earlier concepts and issues are being used, but under the new and trendy label of governance. Accordingly, at least in the water sector, there is the risk that old wine is being recycled in a new bottle with a label of governance.

While water governance has become a popular concept, it should be noted that it is neither equivalent integrated water resources management, nor is it an alternative for water management. Governance cannot mean all things to all people. Unless the water profession can define a functional and implementable concept of governance, its popularity, like many other earlier concepts, can only be transitory.

For water governance to be a long-lasting strategy or paradigm, not only it needs to be defined specifically in the context of the water sector, but also it is essential that practical steps can be taken to operationalise this definition, which can then be demonstrated as having improved existing water management practices and processes.

In general, it is accepted that ethical issues such as responsibility, accountability, transparency, equity and fairness are fundamental requirements for good governance. However, these issues add to the complexity of the existing unresolved discussions of non-functional water institutions and laws, lack of proper public participation nd overall inefficiency in the water sectors of most developing countries.

What is also missing in the discussion on water governance is the type of strategies that need be formulated to implement adequate governance in more realistic terms other instead of generalised statements like requiring “changes in attitudes and behaviour among individuals, institutions, professionals, decision-makers; in short, among all involved.”

In any discussion related to behaviour and participation of society, a starting point should be to acknowledge the enormous complexity of involving “society” in any decision-making process. The present approach is far too simplistic. Society is often viewed as if it was constituted of a few individuals and/or groups, when in fact it consists of a heterogeneous group of individuals, citizens, organised associations and unorganised communities, many of who have vested interests in the direct outcomes of any process in terms of final decisions. This complexity has been one of the main reasons for the current and past failures to establish dynamic, interactive and objective communication, interaction and cooperation between the various levels of governments and society. It is a major challenge to involve constructively and effectively a broad and diverse group of formal and informal organisations, many of whom may have only limited, or even no interest, in discussing specific water-related issues, irrespective of their overall impacts in improving many indicators of their quality of life.

Analysis of development literature indicates that governance is an extremely complex concept to implement, not only in the water sector, but also in all other development-related sectors. Too many factors and actors intersect at different points, times and locations, which means that good governance can probably be best considered to be a general road map to progress, rather than being a specific and well-defined destination to reach.

The Centre´s philosophy is that there are no general solutions for a very heterogeneous world. Thus, discussions on governance should be focused at regional, national and even sub-national levels. The initial focus on this programme is on the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries. InWEnt, Capacity Building International, Germany, has a major 4-year programme, 2005-2008, in this area. The Centre is advising InWEnt on the technical aspects of the implementation of this programme.

This programme has been very carefully planned as to constitute a logical entity, with specific benchmarks and outputs. The current plan is a 4-step interrelated process, which will progress as follows:

• 2005: what is governance, and what are the current situations in the MENA countries;
  
• 2006: what are the critical governance-related issues, and their in-depth analyses;
  
• 2007: where should specific MENA countries be in terms of governance in 2030; and
  
• 2008: what policies should be formulated and implemented so that governance objectives for 2030 can be achieved in individual MENA countries.
  
  

The plan is to convene one Partners´ Forum each year, where some 45 water professionals from governments, academia, private sector and NGOs and 15 international experts will be invited to discuss, review and brainstorm the various governance-related issues. The process is structured in such a way that it will not only produce new and innovative results, but will also contribute to a mutual learning exercise.

The First Partners´ Forum will be held at the Dead Sea, Jordan, 27 November-1 December 2005. The Second Forum will be held in Cairo, 21-30 November 2006. The Third Forum will be in Morocco, in 2007, and the final Forum will be organised in Zaragoza, Spain, along with Expo2008, the focus of which will be on water.

A series of thinkpieces and case studies on governance have been commissioned for the First Forum. Following this meeting, the papers will be peer-reviewed, edited and published as a book by a major international publisher.