Imagine a world where water is safe and secure for all. To achieve this requires prioritising social inclusion in international water management and climate adaptation efforts. By promoting sustainable, equitable and resilient solutions, we can transform water into a beneficial resource for everyone. In recent years, we have seen many initiatives that have prioritised social inclusion. In order to build on these experiences, we invite you to join us in shaping a more inclusive and sustainable water future.
 

Let’s work together!
On the 12th of September, we’ll provide a place to connect, learn and share best practices, innovative ideas and lessons learned in social inclusion and water management. We invite you to join us, share your experiences and engage in meaningful discussions. Together we will formulate actionable steps for transforming water into a resource that benefits everyone.
 

Why social inclusion is important?
Social inclusion plays a crucial role in water management and climate adaptation. Climate change most often impacts vulnerable people and affects the areas in which they live. Moreover, often these people are seen as recipients of solutions rather than partners in resolving water challenges. This approach fails to empower them and ignores their priorities, values and local knowledge. To achieve long-term success, water management and climate actions must be intrinsically linked to local communities’ social and physical environment.

The Dutch Water Sector works towards transformation
In recent years, the Dutch water sector has placed great emphasis on social inclusion. This shift was prompted by serious criticisms of its approach, including a narrow focus on technical aspects, insufficient connections across challenges and a lack of engagement with communities, culture and local governance . Since then, the Dutch water sector has been transforming its practices to embrace more socially inclusive approaches in water management. This includes redirecting its efforts towards actively listening to diverse voices, fostering dialogue and learning from case studies. As a result, we are on a transformative journey to translate social inclusion goals into practical action.
 

Making a transformation on the 12th of September 2023
This transformative journey has just begun and we invite you to join the ride. As you know, enabling social inclusion in water and climate adaptation is a complex process involving challenges over roles, power, timing, budget, ethics, disciplines and other related issues. While learning and improving as we go, we discover our positions, developing new ways and instruments, testing prototypes and discarding old practices. This journey requires reflection, rethinking and continuous learning.

This is why we have organised the Social Inclusion in Water Climate Adaptation event. Here we invite
all participants to:
• Share ambitions and convert them into realistic and practical goals.
• Rethink, reflect and inspire strategies, projects and approaches.
• Include more how-to-guides on social inclusion in our collaborative toolkit

Location
Villa Jongerius, Utrecht