UNESCO IHP holds an International Symposium on Modular Curriculum Development for Postgraduate and Technical Education in Integrated Water Resources Management

An international seminar on "Modular Curriculum Development for Technical Education in Integrated Water Resources Management" held at National Water Resources Institute (NWRI) in Kaduna, Nigeria from 28-30 June 2011. NWRI is hosting the new Regional Centre for Integrated River Basin Management (RC-IRBM), which has been endorsed by the UNESCO Executive Board to the General Conference to become a category-II centre under the auspices of UNESCO. The participants from a number of African nations (Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sengal and Sudan) recommended accelerated actions towards education for sustainable development for the implementation of integrated water resources management at the river basin level. They called for leadership from lending institutions, national governments, private sector and river basin managers to substantially increase investment and facilitate real-world demonstration and implementation of water education at the tertiary and vocational levels to manage hydrological extremes (floods and droughts) as well as to provide access to safe drinking water and sanitation to communities in Africa.

The seminar stressed that a substantial increase in investment in water education at the vocational and tertiary levels is critical, given the realities of: (1) increasing evidence of climate change and associated hydrohazards; (2) increasing demand for water infrastructure development associated with population growth and changing consumption patterns.

These workshop conclusions were based on many case studies, each enabled by leadership from national training institutes, universities, key investors or implementing agencies. A number of these case studies were presented and reviewed during the international seminar. These case studies show that curricula (e.g. national diplomas, higher national diplomas and certificates in engineering as well as new courses in water production, plumbing, water transport and maintenance) developed by NWRI needs to be fully supported to develop critical capacity in managing water resources. Such courses need to be augmented with entrepreneur skills, ICTs and GIS technologies. Such training programs need to clearly demonstrate competence relevant to work to facilitate entry into and progression in employment and continuing/further education and training offered by a recognized body. Competence based training courses must specify the standard of performance in skills, knowledge and understanding along with capability to perform in a number of job related activities in harmonization with National Vocational Quality Frameworks such as the recent work of the Nigerian National Board for Technical Education.

The participants proposed much greater international, national and private sector investments in multilevel capacity building. In this regard the new UNESCO Regional Centre on Integrated River Basin Management (RC IRBM) based at Kaduna can lead modular course development for capacity building in integrated water resources management.