Water Governance Core Group

Claudia Pahl-Wostl

Member of the Planning Committee and Co-Chair of the Water Governance Core Group

Claudia Pahl-Wostl is a member of the Planning Committee for the Sustainable Future Water Programme (SWFP) and Professor for Resources Management and Director of the Institute for Environmental Systems Research at the University of Osnabrück, Germany, and a former co-chair of the Global Water System Project. Her major research interests are adaptive, multi-level governance and management of water resources, social and societal learning and their role in sustainability transformations, and conceptual and methodological frameworks to analyse social-ecological systems. Her emphasis on interdisciplinary work is reflected in her role as editor of three books and twelve special issues in peer reviewed journals.

Photo courtesy of: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Naho Mirumachi

Co-Chair of the Water Governance Core Group

Dr Naho Mirumachi is an expert on transboundary water politics and governance with over 12 years of research experience. Her empirical and policy analysis addresses issues of water governance institutions, science-policy processes for decision-making and water security. Her latest book, Transboundary Water Politics in the Developing World (Routledge) brings together some of her thinking on conflict and cooperation, role of power in resource allocation and river basin development challenges. Naho has worked in a number of regions including the Mekong, Ganges, Orange-Senqu and Pangani river basins. As a social scientist trained in human geography and political science, Naho currently works as a Lecturer in Geography at King’s College London and leads the interdisciplinary research hub, King’s Water. She is dedicated to bringing up the next generation of water experts and convenes the MSc Water: Science and Governance programme at King’s as well as training policy-makers on water security. She is Associate Editor of Water International and regularly serves as a reviewer for major research funding agencies including UK Economics and Social Research Council, Swedish Research Council, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research and Agence Nationale de la Recherche.

Water Future Is Important To Me Because…

The only way forward in shaping our ‘water future’ is by getting scientists, governments, donors, professionals, activists, businesses and local communities to think about how we can really transform existing social structures and everyday practices to seek equity and sustainability.

Aaron Aduna

Member of the Water Governance Core Group

Aaron Aduna is from the Water Resources Commission, Ghana.

Water Future Is Important To Me Because…

Further information will be available in due course.

James Dalton

Member of the Water Governance Core Group

Dr James Dalton joined IUCN in 2009 and is currently the Coordinator Global Water Programme for IUCN .  Prior to IUCN he was based in Fiji at the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SPC-GSD) as the Integrated Water Resource Management Adviser.  In a prior life he was a consultant for ITAD-Water, a specialised consultancy based in the U.K.  For part of this time he provided long term advisory support to consecutive DFID Senior Water Advisers.  He is an irrigation engineer and holds a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering focussing on groundwater management in the Aral Sea Basin.  James has worked on water management for 20 years in over 25 countries worldwide, with extended periods working in the Pacific, Central Asia, East Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. He is currently based at IUCN Headquarters in Switzerland.

Water Future Is Important To Me Because…

Water Future is important to me as a platform to share, learn, and collaborate on the complexity of water management.  Integrating skill and data sets with disciplinary expertise is needed if we are to solve our future water challenges, and contribute to achieving broader environmental and climate goals.

Gimbage Mbeyale

Member of the Water Governance Core Group

Dr Gimbage Mbeyale is from Sokoine University in Tanzania.

Water Future Is Important To Me Because…

Further information will be available in due course.

Diana Suhardiman

Member of the Water Governance Core Group

Diana Suhardiman is a Senior Researcher and Sub-Theme Leader Water Governance and Political Economy at the International Water Management Institute, based in Vientiane, Laos. Putting power and politics central in water governance debates, her research highlights the complex and contested nature of water governance across scale, from transboundary to local. Focusing on multilevel policy and institutional analysis and working at the intersection of land, water, environment and energy in various countries in Asia (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, China, Nepal, Indonesia), her research contests the predominantly a-political approach to economic development as means to benefit the greater common goods, and the way transfer of knowledge and technology is framed merely as technical, managerial issues. Diana’s most recent research looks at the role of violent armed conflict in shaping hydropower debates in the Salween River basin and the role of knowledge sharing in initiating change in the Indus basin. She is the author of more than 30 peer reviewed publications, including the recently published book Bureaucracy and Development: Reflections from the Indonesian Water Sector. Prior to joining IWMI, Diana received a PhD at Wageningen University, the Netherlands.

Water Future Is Important To Me Because…

Governed by different actors and institutions, water is a resource contested by competing interests and divergent paradigms. Striving for informed, inclusive and accountable water governance is pertinent to ensure sustainable and just development.

Rebecca Welling

Member of the Water Governance Core Group

Dr Rebecca Welling is a Project Officer for the Global Water Programme, IUCN Switzerland.

Water Future Is Important To Me Because…

Further information will be available in due course.

Mark Mulligan

Member of the Water Governance Core Group

Mark Mulligan is a Reader in Geography at King’s College London and Senior Fellow of UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre.  He works with a large team of PhD students on a variety of topics in the areas of environmental spatial policy support, ecosystem service modelling and understanding environmental change. He is developer of a range of open datasets  and free web-based policy support systems.  These include a range of hydroclimatic and land cover datasets and the WaterWorld hydrological and Co$ting Nature ecosystem services modelling tool and the open source monitoring  FreeStation project.

Water Future Is Important To Me Because…

We know only that our water future will be different to our water present.  My interest in water future is the application of big data to analysis of local to global water supply and demand.  In particular, I am interested to bridge the science-policy divide by the continued development and application of water policy support systems for understanding hydrological baselines and the implications of land use and climate variation and change.

Naomi Oates

Member of the Water Governance Core Group

Naomi’s research interests lie in the social and political dimensions of water resource management and use, with a view to understanding the implications of governance processes for poverty, equity and sustainability. She is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Sheffield on ‘How policy travels through people: understanding the values and practices of actors in a water governance system’ with focus on rural water supply in Malawi.

In her previous role as Senior Research Officer at the Overseas Development Institute, Naomi was engaged in, and co-leading, a number of projects in eastern and southern Africa investigating water policy and governance in different contexts. This included research on smallholder irrigation institutions, the political economy of river basin development, and delivery of water services to meet domestic and livelihood needs. Cutting across these projects has been an emphasis on understanding relations of power and the outcomes of decision-making processes for different groups in society (who wins and who loses), as well as the environment. Prior to this, Naomi worked with the Climate and Development Knowledge Network, also at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). She holds an MSc in Climate Change and International Development (with distinction) from the University of East Anglia and a BSc in Natural Sciences from Durham University.

Water Future Is Important To Me Because…

Water is fundamental to human life and well-being, and forms an important part of our social worlds, having moral, spiritual and cultural values. Moreover, it is through the medium of water that many future stresses on society will be felt, such as the impacts of climate change and growing demands for food. In securing equitable water futures, I believe it is crucial to understand how decisions are made about water, by whom, and in whose interests, recognising that these decisions will ultimately be political in nature. A true marker of success will be our collective ability to meet the needs of those who have least influence over the outcomes.

Beatrice Mosello

Member of the Water Governance Core Group

Beatrice is a Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute where she conducts research on water governance, climate resilient development and economic growth, and equitable water and sanitation service delivery. She has extensive experience conducting research projects in Africa and Asia, including in conflict-affected areas. Prior to joining ODI, Beatrice was Project Officer for the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and a Visiting Research Student at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), as well as at the Social Research Centre at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan). She also worked as a Research Associate for the EU-funded project ACQWA (FP7), and as a Research Assistant at the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), focusing on the integration of gender into security sector reform. Beatrice holds a PhD in International Relations with a specialisation in Political Science from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (HEID) in Geneva (Switzerland). She is the author of several peer-reviewed publications, including two books, as well as research reports for the World Bank and UNICEF, blogs and photo stories.

Water Future Is Important To Me Because…

To me, water security means that everyone, independently from where they live, what they do, what they are, have access to enough water, of good quality and affordable, for personal and productive uses, and in respect of the environment. Through my research, I want to understand what prevents this ideal goal to become reality, in order to devise policy and practical solutions that contribute to everyone enjoying a healthy, productive and happy life.  Because this is what really matters at the end of the day, isn’t it?

Jorge Rubiano

Member of the Water Governance Core Group

Jorge Rubiano has a background in agronomy, specialising in spatial analysis and the use of information technologies for natural resources research and management. His focus is on water and food resources and watershed management and planning. Jorge Rubiano has worked in rural development with indigenous and farmers‘ communities in Colombia and Central America and is an Associate Professor at the Geography Department of Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia. He runs courses for undergraduate and postgraduate students in geographical information systems, geography of soils, and optional courses in advanced GIS, impact assessment and Colombian rural affairs and usually has one or two research projects during the year in the practice of the themes mentioned above. Jorge Rubiano has recently finished the coordination of a four year project on benefit sharing mechanism for water management and conflict resolution in the Andean region. It was a multi institutional and action research project in key basins of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.  He is also heavily involved in the assessment and dissemination of the Quesungual Agroforestry system in collaboration with international research organizations in Central America and the northern Andes.

Water Future Is Important To Me Because…

Water future is a way to anticipate actions that must be implemented today.