'This paper argues that understanding the link between global capitalist crisis macrodynamics and water commodification trends requires a discussion of the crucial intervening public management strategy, namely the decentralisation of service delivery functions without decentralisation of sufficient resources. The crucial linkage between these processes emanates from core multilateral institutions, like the UN.'

Romanticizing the Poor

Implementing Physical and Virtual Food Reserves to Protect the Poor and Prevent Market Failure

Northern Uganda has been at the centre of a two-decade long insurgency that has left the rural communities in a precarious pandemonium-like situation characterised by widespread poverty, high illiteracy levels and bad living conditions. But this insurgence just came at a time when the region was supposed to be eliminating these obstacles to achieving a dignified, civilised way of life. However, in the last 8 yrs, Apac district, where this project is located, has been relatively safe that is why WOUGNET have been able to establish the rural access project there, according to the WOUGNET Director Dr. Dorothy Okello

By 2025, three billion people will live in water-stressed countries. Management of the world's limited water resources, especially for food production, remains one of the most pressing issues in development. As part of its mandate for innovation in capacity development, the World Bank Institute (WBI) has been building and implementing several creative tools to foster more effective water management. The WBI Water Program is using role plays, games and hands-on simulations, as well as multimedia, to help organizations increase their capacity and skills so they can implement effective management solutions, improve their economic growth, and deliver better water services. These inventive techniques can be used in various settings and can easily be scaled up through local organizations.

'The second United Nations World Water Development Report entitled 'Water, a shared responsibility,' was launched on World Water Day, 22 March 2006, at the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico City, Mexico. Drawing on an extensive database, expert analysis, case studies, and hundreds of graphic elements, this report is the most comprehensive undertaking to date of freshwater assessment. The report is available for download and can also be accessed online.'

3rd United Nations World Water Development Report: Water in a Changing World 'The third edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report, 'Water in a Changing World' was presented recently at the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey on March 16, 2009. This report builds on the work of previous studies, including the two previous World Water Development Reports, and has a new, holistic format. A major theme of this report is that important decisions affecting water management are made outside the water sector and are driven by external, largely unpredictable forces - forces of demography, climate change, the global economy, changing societal values and norms, technological innovation, laws and customs and financial markets. Many of these external drivers are dynamic, and changes are accelerating. The report emphasizes that decisions in other sectors and those related to development, growth and livelihoods should incorporate water as an integral component, including responses to climate change, food and energy challenges and disaster management. The report is available for download and can also be accessed online.'