Water and Development Symposium 2024

Critical views on development practices highlight that conventional knowledge systems rooted in colonial ideologies are often held as the universal standard for progress on sustainable development. Extractive and exploitative principles underpin the mainstream approach to development, often resulting in certain groups or institutions dominating the creation and dissemination of knowledge. This not only increases inequality, but also causes significant environmental damage. 

Knowledge is not the same everywhere, and the idea of a superior, universal knowledge fosters a monopoly over knowledge production, practices and institutions, which devalues and restricts other forms of knowledge and ways of understanding. In this one-day symposium, we will discuss how knowledge varies across different contexts, and how our understanding is influenced by specific circumstances, experiences and environments. We will explore how taking these specifics into account when creating knowledge can create pathways for engaging with other perspectives and knowledge on water and development.

The Water and Development Partnership Programme strives to amplify the voices of marginalised groups and highlight their experiences, while advocating for deeper, systemic change that challenge dominant ways of doing water development. The Symposium sessions will create space to discuss what the water development concept means to different actors—water researchers, policy advisors, water practitioners and communities—and how these diverse meanings can challenge mainstream ways of knowing water. The sessions will also offer participants opportunities to share experiences and reflect on dominant ideas of water development.

The symposium aims to contribute to a critical understanding of what development is in practice, and to highlight alternative approaches. Panellists will share diverse perspectives and discussions will explore methods of knowledge production that open avenues for thinking collaboratively about equitable futures. 

During the sessions, several of our project teams will present concrete examples of how they are moving away from colonial practices in their research and project activities. Using case studies, these projects will discuss how they approach integrating other forms of knowledge through collaborative partnerships with various actors within and across different regions as one way to put these alternative approaches into practice.

We invite you to be part of the conversation this November!

Note: The symposium will be conducted in English, with interpretation services available in French and Spanish.