Making IUWM Work in African Cities 121
the World Bank Institute on climate change adaptation. ICLEI has a number of members in the local government sector in Africa. While it does not seem that ICLEI has the capacity to undertake the leadership of such a network it would be an important supporting partner in the initiative. • Option 2: Consolidate a number of existing African networks in an IUWM initiative. Existing networks in the area of water management and urban development can be brought together for an IUWM initiative. This could be done by getting selected networks to collaborate on becoming drivers of IUWM in Africa. This would constitute a loose IUWM-focused network that would be able to communicate across current institutional boundaries. The diversity of networking organizations could lend richness to the development and implementation of IUWM. There is a risk, however, that each organization would focus on its own priorities rather than prioritize the integration and sustainable management perspective inherent in IUWM. • Option 3: Create a new dedicated IUWM network by bringing together practitioners and experts with interest in IUWM currently working in a variety of institutions in different sectors. A new organization would have the energy, fresh ideas, and momentum of a start up, given a skilled and enthusiastic support team. It would also have the opportunity to work across boundaries from the beginning. Transaction costs would be large, however, unless the initial support team is based in an organization with substantial existing capacity in Africa. A new structure will take time to get off the ground and might not be sustainable; sustainability would require long-term financial commitments as it is unlikely that membership fees would be able to finance the network in the foreseeable future. Of these options, we recommend expanding the scope of an existing organization (option 1), as we feel that this will yield the fastest and most cost-effective results and be the most effective in promoting adoption at a local level. We suggest that IWA should coordinate the establishment of, and form the initial core of, such a network. However, there is a risk that a focus on a narrow set of interests (such as utilities and municipalities) would not take into account key stakeholders and issues (such as health and education). It is therefore recommended that a first step would be stakeholder mapping with the aim to ensure sufficient reach.