Background

At the 5th GWP-SEA SC Meeting on 8th November 2005 in Kuala Lumpur, Dr. Lee Jin, the Chair of the Malaysian ToolBox Committee, presented a proposal to carry out a pilot project to develop the GWP-SEA Country IWRM ToolBox websites. The proposal arose from the consensus among the ToolBox Focal Points of the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia who had been undertaking Pilot Demonstration Projects in their respective countries. During the ToolBox Training of Trainors held in August 2005 prior to the 2nd SEA Water Forum at Bali, it was agreed that development of specific country ToolBox websites that would serve as gateways to the GWP ToolBox for IWRM would help promote the use of ToolBox in the respective countries.

The overall goal of the pilot project is:

“To develop the GWP-SEA Country IWRM ToolBox Website, with links to 8 country-specific IWRM ToolBox websites (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam), based on a country-specific IWRM ToolBox template framework, developed using the Malaysian IWRM ToolBox website as a prototype”.

The GWP-SEA Country IWRM Toolbox website offers the use of an interactive software that enables users to type in a case proposal and submit it online to a database that is searchable by case location, IWRM theme, IWRM tool, among others.

As of now, only Malaysia and the Philippines have their own IWRM ToolBox websites, the flag buttons for Malaysia and the Philippines are links that lead to their respective IWRM ToolBoxes. The goal of the third and final phase of the project is to enable the six other member countries in the SEA region (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam) to have their own country IWRM ToolBoxes and to activate their respective flag buttons, following the prototype developed for the Malaysian and Philippine IWRM ToolBox websites.

Case Studies Review and Submission to the GWP-SEA and GWP Toolboxes

The key feature of the GWP-SEA ToolBox website is its Case Study Submission Form, which has asignificant advantage of removing the need for essay writing in submitting a case study to the GWP-SEA ToolBox, and also allows the use of a Form Query to search for case studies. The fields in the Form guide a case study contributor in submitting a case study. It also facilitates review of case studies by two appointed reviewers – a local/in-country and an international/SEA regional reviewer.

User must first register an account with the GWP-SEA Toolbox website before they can submit and review the case studies.