Water is widely recognized as fundamental for all aspects of life, and access to water is a prerequisite for the realization of a long list of human rights. With almost half of humanity sharing the resources of international river basins, competition over this vital resource might arise. History has shown that water can provide a powerful natural incentive for collaboration and development. However, when this competition grows faster than the innovative processes and nstitutional capacities required for co-operation, diverging interests become more pronounced, and potential or even real conflicts might appear, hindering any possible progress. Furthermore, in most cases, achieving co-operation among riparian countries of an international basin requires many years of effort.
The main idea of the conference is to provide interactive sessions where the participants can, on the one hand, increase their knowledge of a specific basin, and on the other hand, improve their conflict management/resolution skills by taking part in the subsequent role-plays. Different conflict resolution techniques will be presented to the participants who will have a unique opportunity to get acquainted with them by active participation.