Our Approach

Because water is so deeply embedded in the multiple domains of both the human condition and the physical environment, water and sanitation interventions must be holistic. Therefore, GWI builds its programs upon the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach. IWRM uses a watershed as a focal point for bringing together the various water users from both public and private sectors, whose interests in water are multiple, divergent and sometimes competing. The expectation is that participatory, deliberate, and well-informed planning and decision making concerning the water resource will lead to equitable and sustainable use.

IWRM is meant to be a dynamic process that requires regular monitoring and adjustments based on changing conditions (for example, ecological, climatic, social and economic factors). The long-term commitment of GWI in three regions of the world provides an opportunity for the project partners to develop models for integrated water management, which are likely to ensure that investments in water and sanitation infrastructure and watershed management interventions are more sustainable.

Within the broad framework of IWRM, the GWI regions’ strategic objectives are remarkably similar, even through each region undertook independent processes of developing them.
These can be summarized as follows:

Reducing Vulnerability and Protecting the Environment

GWI’s priority is the welfare of poor communities living in water-stressed areas. We help ensure that their voices are heard and their interests represented when it comes to making decisions with municipal governments and other actors about water resources that they use. Within communities, GWI also gives special attention to the needs of the disadvantaged, especially women, the elderly and those with disabilities.

Approximately 85 percent of the people without enough water live in rural areas. They are especially susceptible to unpredictable climate and environmental changes,  such as prolonged droughts and more frequent natural disasters. In addition, because their survival often depends on a direct consumption of natural resources, they sometimes interact with the physical environment in harmful ways. Water access can play a part in this, such as when pastoralist groups cluster around a new borehole, causing their cattle to overgraze local vegetation.

Through vulnerability assessments and planning to manage increased risks from natural disasters and climate change, the GWI aims to make communities better able to withstand water and climate-related shocks and protect their physical environments, including watersheds.

Improving Access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services for Multiple Uses

A sole water point can be relied on by several communities for a variety of uses, from watering cattle to collecting water for bathing and for cooking. When planning hardware improvements, GWI must be mindful of how best to address these multiple uses, along with the governance structures that must be set in place to ensure the proper use of the water point. Activities in this area range from the use of safe water systems to ensure technology-appropriate treatment and sanitary storage, to education on hygiene, building of water troughs for cattle, and drying racks for kitchenware and bathing shelters in the home. We are also interested in water as an input into livelihoods and do extensive work with making simple irrigation schemes accessible.

Supporting Systems, Constituencies and Policies for Water

The success of water and sanitation interventions in small geographic areas very much depends on an enabling policy environment at local, regional, and national levels. This includes forums to bring together different actors to debate, discuss and promote awareness of water use. It calls for policies at local and national level that support equitable and sustainable water use and are well integrated with other sectors. Even at the community level, an enabling environment for effective governance is needed with clearly understood and accepted roles, responsibilities and bylaws.  GWI is aware of the critical nature of these supportive systems and has made water governance and policy issues one of the key pillars of its approach.