Inclusive governance, co-creation, and social innovation

Inclusive governance and social innovation are not presented in InnWater as abstract ideals, but as practical ways to make water governance more legitimate, workable, and resilient. This section focuses on how governance can be intentionally designed so that a broad diversity of actors—not only institutions and organized stakeholders, but also less-visible groups—can meaningfully contribute to shaping solutions, producing knowledge, and supporting adaptive decision-making over time.

The emphasis is on moving beyond formal participation toward co-creation: creating spaces and mechanisms where different interests can meet, ideas can be tested and refined collectively, and knowledge can be co-produced through concrete practices such as participatory monitoring, deliberative formats, and feedback platforms.

Finally, this section highlights what makes these approaches durable: how social innovations can be embedded into routines, bodies, and agreements so that inclusion and co-construction do not remain isolated experiments, but become part of everyday water governance practices.