Over 700 agencies and institutions work on Integrated Water and Wastewater Management (IWWM) issues throughout the Caribbean region, including national stakeholders, regional stakeholders, and the United Nations University’s proposal to support GEF CReW+ member countries.
Several models help understand the relationships among the 700 regional actors involved with clean water and a healthy environment. The “onion” model suggests rings or layers of involvement and commitment, which explains some elements of a global-local or macro-micro dimension of reducing marine pollution. The “network of network” model, or a “three-dimensional spiderweb”, helps reveal how each stakeholder has its own networks (which include many of the same agencies) or that some partners themselves are a network of thousands of individuals and organizations, such as the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance. Finally, the model of participating in high-level initiatives, such as the Regional Strategic Action Plan for Building Resilience in the Water Sector in the Caribbean (that includes UN agencies, international financial institutions (IFIs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and national governments), showcases partners’ distinct mandates and topical strengths, where GEF CReW+ is but one of many collaborators.
The GEF CReW+ Stakeholder Map provides information of approximately 40 active partners on an interactive online platform called Kumu. The resulting map organizes complex data on the partners’ roles, their interconnectivity and mutual influence in a visually attractive and easily understood graphic format. The map facilitates observation of partner involvement and influence over specific components of the GEF CReW+ project such as reforms and governance, sustainable financing, provision of innovative technologies and knowledge management, as well as more generally their involvement in integrated water and wastewater management. The following graphic depicts the web of current and potential partner relationships within GEF CReW+.