Event description

With two-thirds of Africa’s feasible hydropower potential untapped, the growing demand for power must be weighed against water scarcity, and the need for water resources to be managed sustainably is paramount.

Against this backdrop, the International Water Stewardship Programme (IWaSP) with the support of GiZ, has organised a regional conference on ‘Water Stewardship for Sustainable Hydropower’ between 5 and 8 June 2018 to explore how stewardship approaches can address the pressing challenges and add value to existing models of hydropower development and operation.

IHA will lead a one-day workshop on 7 June 2018 on the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol, an internationally recognised tool used to assess the performance of a hydropower project across more than 20 topics.

In addition, IHA will participate in a pre-conference session on benefit sharing to discuss and share the existing mechanisms for community benefit sharing to promote cooperation among different stakeholders and as a vital component of sustainable hydropower development and operation.

Programme

Setting the scene

• Background to developing the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol
• World Commission on Dams
• Hydropower Sustainability Forum

Introduction to the Protocol

• Structure (topics, scoring statements, criteria)
• Good practice vs. best practice
• Governance
• Council Chambers and stakeholder engagement

The Protocol in practice

• The Protocol in practice
• Basic auditing principles
• Interview techniques
• Handling evidence
• How to record evidence
• Interpreting scoring statements

The Protocol and climate change

• Expanded Protocol to include new topic
• Threshold values for reservoir emissions
• Introduction to the G-Res tool
• Climate resilience aspects

New Protocol tools

• Background to development of Protocol derivative products
• Environmental, social and governance tool
• Good international industry practice guidelines

Value of the Protocol

• Examples of how the Protocol can be used
• Compliance with international financial institutions’ safeguards (e.g. the World Bank)
• Case studies: where the Protocol has had a direct bearing on good practice uptake

Discussion on sustainable hydropower in the regional context

• Wrap-up and conclusions

More information

For more information, please contact IHA Hydropower Analyst Cristina Diez Santos at cds@hydropower.org and IHA Sustainability Programme Manager Frank Faraday at ff@hydropower.org.

Download the conference flyer.