SPLASH Good Practice Workshop – Sharing our Learning and Planning our Future, Brussels, October 2010
In coordination with the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs during its presidency of the EU, SPLASH hosted a workshop in Brussels from 27-29 October. The overall objective of the workshop was to increase the contribution made by water for development research to achievement of the water related international development goals. The workshop served the dual purposes of:
- sharing findings and good practice between SPLASH and research and development partners; and
- engaging these relevant stakeholders to discuss and refine future plans of SPLASH beyond December 2010, dependent on a contract amendment request to extend the duration of this into 2011.
The participants
Between 50 and 60 participants from Europe, Africa and the Mekong region attended for all or part of the meeting. These included policy makers, EUWI Secretariat members, donor organizations, members of the SPLASH Strategic Management Board (SMB) and Scientific Advisory Council (SAC), as well as coordinators of related ERA-Nets, and other platforms, networks and partner institutions such as AQUAKNOW, the network of African Centres of Excellence for water, Africa Groundwater Network and IFS, Sweden.
The results
SPLASH achievements and outputs were presented in line with its objectives, and presentations on how these had been met by SPLASH activities and resources. We were also pleased to receive presentations from partner organizations and related initiatives, which helped us to share learning and experience to maximize synergies and help networking. In addition, proposals for SPLASH future work aligned to these objectives was presented followed by open discussion of the ways in which SPLASH can build on this and go forward into 2011 and 2012.
A meeting of the SPLASH SMB on Friday 29th October considered the proposals and comments of the SAC and made tentative decisions to proceed with some specific areas of work provided by the SPLASH contract is extended by the European Commission. These meetings allowed SPLASH to achieve the outcomes listed below, which were discussed in groups and in plenary with recommendations made to maximise effectiveness.
- to share good practice on many aspects of research management;
- to generate constructive comment and feedback on the work undertaken by SPLASH to date;
- to jointly discuss, and as a result strengthen, the proposed future work of SPLASH;
- to make funding decisions and resource commitments to establish a future work programme which will enable SPLASH activities to continue for a period of at least 2 further years; and
- to guide the constitution of future management and working processes for SPLASH into the future.
Workshop participants (Photo: Prof. Khaled M. AbuZeid, CEDARE, Egypt)
