Framing Solutions: Building Partnerships

Jeff Seabright, The Coca-Cola Company
Greg Allgood, Procter & Gamble Company
Steve Werner, Water For People
Amb. John McDonald, Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy
Karin Krchnak, Council for Sustainable Development, Freshwater Caucus

"The Coca-Cola company can and will refresh and hydrate our consumers, and at the same time support sustainable access to water within communities. These two goals are not at odds with one another, rather they are complimentary and…even mutually dependent.... " — Jeff Seabright

"We know that this relatively new approach of treating water in your home and storing it safely, can dramatically reduce illness and death. And it's an extremely cost-effective and health-efficient way to address part of the global water crisis." — Greg Allgood

"When we go back to the communities and ask the women what's the difference now [that they have a reliable source of water], of course they say their children are not as sick, there's fewer people dieing, but they also bring out the blouses that their sewing and the sweaters their knitting and they talk about the money they now have to send their kids to school.... Water...does cut across many issues and help contribute to the overall betterment of the community." — Steve Werner

"With a little restructuring here and there, I believe this decade can be the start of a whole new program and a whole new process. So that is a world vision. It's a global vision. It demands partners and partnerships to make it actually work." — Amb. John McDonald

"Partnerships can be a really key tool for building trust between partners and different types of groups in particular. I think the United States could be particularly involved in helping to build that trust."
— Karin Krchnak

The final panel discussed partnerships between the private sector, government, nongovernmental organization, and multi-lateral institutions in developing and implementing water projects across the world.

Beyond the actual management of water utilities, private corporations are engaged in global water challenges in many different ways. Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble offer two examples of companies confronting the issues from two distinct directions and at many different scales. Because Coca-Cola uses water as a main ingredient to serve its consumers in local markets, the company has adopted efficient business practices, conservation techniques, and partnerships with local communities to act as a responsible local "citizen." In order to develop and distribute its PUR sachets, a packet of powder that purifies and cleans ten gallons of dirty water, Procter & Gamble established partnerships with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization as part of a broader effort toward clean and safe drinking water. Both of these types of private sector enterprises highlight the need to form partnerships with indigenous communities, and NGO's where they operate, not only to help distribute their products, but to guarantee sufficient water supply for communities and the environment.

The knowledge developed by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) stemming form their experiences and partnerships with other local and international NGOs, international organizations, national governments, local municipalities, and the private sector is invaluable and can be leveraged to create sustainable strategies and projects. Most notable among these strategies are NGOs' experience with using and developing local resources from physical capital to financial capital to human capital.

The role of international organizations and multilateral institutions in the fight against water scarcity and sanitation issues is to continue fostering support for global water projects and strategies, facilitate an international dialogue, and build and enable partnerships. In the United Nation's first International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade from 1981-1990, the world was extremely successful in providing safe water to over one billion people. However by the mid-1990's as the populations of the developing world boomed, the developed world failed to carry the momentum and continue expanding access to safe drinking water and sanitation throughout the world. The United Nations has declared a second international decade from 2005-2015, the International Decade for Action – Water for Life, but the international community's response has been lackluster thus far. Also seemingly absent from the global stage is the United States, even though many U.S. agencies, including the EPA, USAID, and USDA, conduct a multitude of water projects across the world. A key competency of the United States lies in building and facilitating partnerships. In the future, such partnerships could focus on sponsoring a regular dialogue and promoting a cross-sectoral approach for cross-sectoral solution (i.e. solutions that would involve water and agriculture, water and energy, water and forestry, etc.).

Back to Workshop One: U.S. Policy Innovation

Jeff Seabright
Greg Allgood
Steve Werner
Amb. John McDonald
Karin Krchnak