IWRA 2021 Master Classes

Thursday, September 23rd at 2pm

The International Water Resources Association (IWRA) in collaboration with the Universities Partnership for Water Cooperation and Diplomacy (UPWCD), would like to invite you to the 8th online master class on Water Cooperation & Diplomacy that will take place on Thursday, September 23rd starting at 2pm Central European Time.

This series of ten weekly classes, will be held for two and half hours each, divided into:

1. Public lectures: A 90-minute session, freely accessible and open to all; followed by,
2. Skill-building workshops: Each session will run for 60 minutes, only for IWRA Gold and Silver members, as well as UPWCD students and members. You will be sent a different link for the workshop than the one used for the public lecture.

Lecture Objectives

The lecture will focus on transboundary water conflicts and cooperation bringing in two interesting approaches – virtual water trade and game theory. Both being economic mechanisms, the lecture will highlight the use of these approaches in transboundary water management and conflict resolution.

Virtual water trade (water embodied in products), can be used to reduce water conflicts by trading water intense commodities to water scarce region and thus reducing the pressure on the water resources. While virtual water has been extensively applied as a national water policy mechanism to mitigate national water deficit, this lecture will highlight the use of virtual water trade as a mechanism for conflict resolution in the context of transboundary waters.

Game theory, takes the realist approach to international relations and assumes that nation-states are motivated only by their own interests. But Game theory can be used as a strong mechanism for addressing transboundary water resources conflicts as it is multi-objective multi-agent interactive decision theory and deals with decision situations in which actors are not isolated, but are influenced by other actor’s decisions and actions. Using examples from real world scenarios (e.g. Brahmaputra River Basin), the lecture will highlight how interests, preferences, and available strategies affects transboundary interaction among rational players (nation states).

Workshop Objectives

During the workshop, participants will learn about:

• Transboundary interaction and the complex setting Interests, priorities and strategies of national states that influences transboundary decision making.
• Economic approaches in transboundary water management and conflict resolution.
• Analysing multi-criteria multi-decision maker interaction processes in transboundary context along with potential output.

Water Diplomacy refers to all positive interactions among actors concerned with the management of shared water resources that aim to achieve peaceful and sound management of such resources. While practicing water diplomacy, such actors try to influence each other’s opinions, perceptions of facts, positions and interests to negotiate towards a mutually accepted solution concerning shared resources.

This series of Master Classes will address the above issues, and help develop skills relevant to water diplomacy. Experts from around the world will participate and classes will be closely linked to each expert’s style and methodology, as well as to the distinct characteristics of each subject matter.

Note:

• The organisers of this event recognize that while all presentations will be live, the time difference between all regions of the world constitutes a main concern. Therefore, all recordings will be posted at as soon as they become available. All lectures and workshops will be held in English only.
• Certificates will be made available for IWRA & UPWCD members who attend both the public lecture and the workshop for the master class.