Bringing Governance Levels Closer Together through Water and Climate Resilience

Guest Blog by Dani Gaillard-Picher, who is Senior Policy Advisor for the Water Resilience Tracker at the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation.  

While working on my master’s degree in Global Development Management, I became fascinated by one persistent challenge in sustainable development: the gap between global processes and local action. I remember suggesting this subject as a thesis to one of my advisors who just sort of shook his head and said, “Ah yes, the eternal conundrum…”

Central governments design policies. Local governments implement them. Yet, even when they agree on the same overall goals, global, national and local actors operate in entirely different political, institutional and practical spheres with very different time horizons. Sometimes the complexity of implementation is vastly underestimated or is not accompanied by sufficient resources. Policies that sometimes work beautifully on paper, struggle in practice.

Years later, this “eternal conundrum” still shapes how we think about sustainable development, and it is particularly visible in the governance of water and climate resilience. Ministries and budgets are siloed. Even within ministries and agencies, actions are not always harmonized. Policy formulation is not always consultative. Local “actors” frequently can’t “act” due to a lack of resources, authority or knowledge.

That is why I was particularly excited when the opportunity arose to dive into this question with the Water Resilience Tracker Partners, drawing positive lessons from lived examples. The result is a new Knowledge Brief, Scaling water and climate resilience: Tools to link national strategies to local realities.

Drawing from positive experiences in places like Brazil, Malawi, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Mozambique, we discovered complex networks of vertical and horizontal linkages that needs to be supported in multiple directions simultaneously: from central government to local and regional actors, from local and regional actors to central government, and across sectoral domains at all levels. In other words, governing for resilience is a team sport. As we concluded:

“Effective multi-level governance depends on strong coordination mechanisms, joint decision-making processes, transparency and trust building across different levels of government. It also requires flexibility to adapt policies to territorial diversity and local realities.”

Easier said than done.

But some things can help enhance the potential for strengthened cooperation.

-          Shared understanding of the problem, supported by accessible data and transparent information systems

-          Open communication channels that allow relationships and trust to develop

-          Clarity about decision-making authority and responsibilities, including the resources available for action

-          Mechanisms to measure progress and identify gaps

-          Regular opportunities to review and adjust orientations together

One of the aspects I particularly appreciate about this work is its grounding in real-world experience, with each locality facing very different challenges. What emerges from these experiences is a simple but powerful insight: resilience is not built through isolated projects. It is built through systems. It also demonstrates that resilience is achieved best when everyone shares ownership—again a team sport.

The brief then goes on to propose approaches and tools that can be used every step of the way.

The urgency of this work is hard to overstate. If water resilience can be embedded into climate planning sooner rather than later across national policies, regional strategies and local implementation, we can avoid many of the pitfalls that have plagued water management for decades.

The problems we face may be complex. But the path forward is often surprisingly simple: bring the different levels of governance closer together, ensure they work from the same information, and give them the tools to act collectively.

After all, resilience, like water, flows best when the channels between systems are open.