Nancy Doubleday, Nidhi Nagabhatla (2022). Transformative Governance, Engagement & Equity for Action on Adaptive Water Futures. Proceedings of the GWF Annual Open Science Meeting, May 16-18, 2022.

Water governance qualifies as a "wicked problem" and wicked problems require transformative solutions. This paper offers a rapid assessment of policy developments since the GWF Second Open Science meeting with respect to the key concerns of governance, engagement and equity as they relate to the broad goals for advancing integrated water governance and water security policy, across scales and boundaries. In 2019, we identified governance, engagement and equity as strategic concerns for achieving secure, adaptive, water futures targeted by SDG 6. However, to successfully meet timelines, we also recognized the need for synergy and acceleration.
Encouragingly, new sensibilities have strengthened the overarching policy discourse, and we flag a range of emergent and convergent policy drivers, including: reporting from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, (IPCC), the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as contributions by the Canadian government, signaling shifts, based on the capacity to accelerate progress, and foster increasing inclusion, cooperation and equity, while transforming governance across scales and boundaries. The roles of Canadian research partnerships in advancing the social-cultural-ecological drivers in enabling high-level discourse are also considered. In the above context, by providing explanation of intra and inter sectoral partnerships and cooperation, between or among user groups on water use/allocation/management actors, agencies, scopes and scales (supranational to subnational, with particular focus on underserved populations and indigenous groups), we will comment on the interface between SDG 6, 16 and 17. For instance, Target 16.7- the calls for responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels and target 17.14 outlining the need to enhance policy coherence for sustainable development. We conclude that initiatives based on advances in accelerating SDGs, and on identifying new opportunities for social innovation that are informed by inclusion, equity and justice create transformative capacity for governance. Using cross-scale, multisectoral examples from Global Water Futures supported research, as well as current policy for a we offer an analysis pointing to fruitful directions for policy alternatives that converge in strategic action to advance the targets and goals of SDGs, recognize rights, and more fully engage with diverse, cross-scale interests to respond effectively to wicked problems of water security through transformative governance strategies.

Key words: water security, transformative governance, cross-scale engagement, equity, justice, knowledge for action

AOSM2022 Ohneganos, Boreal Water Futures First Author: Nancy Doubleday, McMaster University Additional Authors: Nidhi Nagabhatla, McMaster University & UNU CRIS