The IPU Science for Peace Schools
Curriculum of the first Class: Dealing with water scarcity: an opportunity to rebuild peace with Science.
Over recent years, the increasingly visible climate change impact has accelerated challenges linked to water scarcity, posing a threat to livelihoods, ecosystems and peace around the world. Water – as a fundamental element of human survival and dignity – plays a central role in the resilience of societies and the natural environment, and is therefore a potential source of conflict. Water availability has become a point of tension between countries and communities that share the same water sources. In armed conflicts water resources and installations are come under attack. According to United Nations Water, in 2021, 2.3 billion people were living in water-stressed countries around the world. In response to this increasingly pressing water crisis, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the human right to water in 2010, and to sanitation in 2015.
Given the vital role of water in securing life, development and peace, and in light of the IPU Committee on Middle East Question’s previous activities focused on water, the first IPU Science for Peace School will focus on water management and the exploration of new and renewable sources of water to increase the availability of this precious resource, which is so often a source of conflict. The School will not intervene in the political aspect of existing water negotiations. Instead, it will aim to contribute to a positive technical cooperation environment for negotiations by proposing alternative technologies and modalities to lessen the tensions related to water scarcity, thus encouraging coexistence between nations.
The following curriculum was designed by the IPU, in association with CERN as concerns the elements related to scientific collaboration with CERN:
Module 1: Science and peace
A. Introduction to collaboration in science: Participants will learn about CERN, its scientific objectives, research programmes, governance, installations, and the relations between basic science and international peaceful cooperation. CERN’s “cooperation model” will be explained, as well as how this model helps researchers around the world work together while using science as a platform of dialogue. The applicability of this model in other contexts (e.g. SESAME) will be explored.
B. Introduction to peace: Participants will be invited to develop a comprehensive overview of the IPU vision and strategy to ensure parliaments and parliamentarians understand and employ science, technology and innovation in their legislative practice more effectively. The aim is to foster multicultural dialogue and engage in transboundary projects.
Module 2: The human right to water and the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 6
A. Human rights-based approach: Participants will explore the content, core principles, and application of a human rights-based approach to water and sanitation. They will consider the barriers in the realisation of this human right and explore how these barriers can be overcome.
B. Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6): Participants will develop a comprehensive overview of the targets of SDG 6 and will consider several case studies on innovative initiatives within different regions aiming at attaining SDG 6 targets, including through the introduction of technology and governance projects prioritizing water security and peace. Participants will be invited to brainstorm and present a potential collaborative project aiming to achieve one SDG 6 target.
Module 3: Science diplomacy and innovation technologies
A. Water diplomacy: Key notions of water diplomacy, including the different tracks of water diplomacy, will be presented. Participants will explore regional water diplomacy case studies which highlight innovative ideas and determine how these innovative ideas can be applied to other contexts. They will map relevant international, regional, and local non-governmental actors, platforms, and transboundary projects facilitating water diplomacy. Participants will explore the tools that can be used to facilitate water diplomacy.
B. Innovation technology: Case studies of promising new innovative technology in the field of water management and the exploration of new and renewable sources of water will be presented. Participants will consider how innovation can be encouraged within parliaments and countries, the conditions that can favour and facilitate such innovation, and how to overcome barriers to innovation.
Module 4: Parliamentary cooperation
A. Sharing of best legislative practices: Participants will exchange and present their legislative experiences and best practices related to their national plans of action on water. They will be invited to consider innovative ways to facilitate the exchange between parliaments on legislative practice, including the establishment of a web-based platform, a legislation bank, or model legislative provisions on issues related to water.
B. Community of parliamentary experts: Participants will be introduced to their role as national focal points of the community of parliamentary experts on water, as well as to how they can foster continuity, cooperation and innovation within the community. They will consider how best to transmit the skills and knowledge they have acquired to their national parliaments.
Participants of the first edition of the Schools :
Twenty-four participants from all six Geopolitical Groups attended the first edition of the IPU Science for Peace Schools, held at CERN, in Switzerland and France. The participants were made up of 21 parliamentary staff nominated by their national parliaments and three parliamentarians, including the IPU Chair of the Working Group on Science and Technology, the President of the Committee on Middle East Questions, and a member of the Board of the Forum of Young Parliamentarians. Nominating parliamentary staff, who are often long-serving, helped ensure continuity throughout parliamentary mandates.
Particular care was made to ensure representation from parliaments around the world, notably of Sahel countries due to the ongoing crisis in the region, and those represented in the IPU Committee on Middle East Questions, due to the Committee’s role in the establishment of the Schools. As such, the participants represented parliaments such as Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, India, Israel, Moldova, Palestine, South Korea, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay.
The participants attended five days of lectures, workshops, and visits relating to CERN on the theme of Dealing with water scarcity: an opportunity to rebuild peace with Science. Staying together and being fully immersed in CERN’s daily life during the duration of the School gave participants the possibility to get to know each other and helped foster the spirit of collaboration that is needed to design and implement possible joint transboundary projects. These participants now form the Schools’ first cohort.
Next steps :
The Schools first edition resulted in an agreement by participants on the necessity of implementing two regional collaborative projects on water in the Sahel region and in the State of Palestine. Mr. Michel Spiro, Chair of the Steering Committee of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development 2022-2023, affirmed this Committee’s willingness to including the Science for Peace Schools as part of the activities of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development 2022-2023.
To continue implementing the outcomes and objectives of the first Science for Peace Schools, the Science for Peace Parliamentary meeting will be held from 11 to 13 September 2023 at the International Centre for Interdisciplinary Science and Education (ICISE) in Quy Nhon, Viet Nam, on the theme: Water security and insecurity: Rebuilding peaceful coexistence with science.