Social Inclusion

Water issues often impact marginalised populations and affect the areas they live in. However, solutions are frequently developed based on assumptions about these communities’ needs rather than by actively listening to their voices. This approach fails to empower them, prohibits ownership and neglects valuable local knowledge-factors which are all essential for the long-term sustainability of water projects. That’s why Partners for Water is committed to involving diverse voices in our water projects and facilitating conversations about inclusivity to foster transformation within the water sector.

We focus on facilitating early-stage projects and providing advisory support for large-scale implementation. In these projects, we emphasise co-creation with local communities and other stakeholders, adopt a multidisciplinary approach and integrate local knowledge. Additionally, we continuously aim to enhance our inclusive practices, deepen our understanding of social inclusion and share the insights and lessons learned with the global water sector.

• Subsidy: In order to promote solutions that are well-suited to the local context, the active involvement of local parties is required for Dutch companies, knowledge institutions, and NGOs when they are granted a subsidy for a feasibility study or pilot project.
• Theory U: Starting with open dialogue, listening and observing to understand the local dynamics forms the foundation for community-supported solutions. That’s why we integrate the practices of Theory U across all our activities, prioritising active listening, observation and the suspension of judgment.
• Co-creation: We are committed to stimulating inclusive, tailored and locally embedded solutions by promoting co-creation among multidisciplinary teams, local stakeholders and both private and public local parties.

• Community of Practice: Together with Deltares, we started a Community of Practice in 2019. The community is made up of a diverse group of individuals from companies, knowledge institutions, NGOs and governmental organisations. All of them are committed to learning about social inclusion, sharing analyses and experiences, advising each other, developing improved practices and passing on the results to the global water sector.
• Knowledge sharing: We monitor and share insights and lessons learned from our initiatives across the Partners for Water community and our international collaborators.
• Events: We regularly organise events and side events focused on promoting social inclusion and exchanging lessons learned and experiences throughout the global water sector, such as the  ‘Social Inclusion in Water and Climate Adaptation – Making a Transformation’ event.