IDRC’s water-related projects share several defining characteristics.

First, they take a multidisciplinary approach, based on a principle summed up by Senior Program Specialist Andrés Sanchez: “Everything is connected to everything.”

With training both as a water engineer and as an anthropologist, Sanchez embodies IDRC’s dual focus on technical and social challenges.

“I became an anthropologist out of frustration with seeing promising technologies not being put to a good use,” he explains. “You need infrastructure to address water problems, but you also have to encourage people to change their behaviour. And you have to understand behaviour before you can change it.”

Local Knowledge is Essential

This point is tied to another IDRC principle: researchers must understand the perspective of water users. Without local knowledge and leadership, technical solutions can’t be matched to local needs and expectations, and they will likely fail. Researchers need to help the community define the problem and develop the solution, supported by rigorous scientific and technical analysis to inform decisions.

How are local innovations sustained and disseminated more widely? Part of the answer is creating and strengthening institutions for consensual water management decision-making. These participant-built institutions create trust, coordinate the efforts of many individuals and organizations, and identify and resolve conflicts.

“It’s hard to get different actors and stakeholders together to look at water issues from more than just the technical perspective,”  Sanchez says, “because there are always competing interests and agendas. Yet water also allows people to come together because it touches everyone.”

Linking Research Results to Policy

To be effective, institutions must be supported by government policies that make it possible to secure legitimate water rights, identify appropriate quality standards, provide economic incentives for better water management, and share information as widely as possible. The best way for researchers to influence policy is to bring policymakers and decision-makers into the research process, so that they help identify problems and evaluate solutions.

To achieve this kind of impact, local researchers need to understand policy and political processes.

“They also need to work strategically,” says Jean Lebel, director, Environment and Natural Resource Management, “by linking their projects to other projects within IDRC and within IDRC’s networks to help build momentum for change.” In this way, local solutions to local problems can inform effective national and regional water policies.

As Andrés Sanchez points out, “Policies derived from successful community projects are more successful than policies imposed by a central authority.”

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