Pre-negotiation framework to promote cooperative negotiations in water resource conflicts through value creation approach

The allocation of water resources has been a source of tension between people all over the world. The need for water which everyone holds in common should be a motive for cooperation and not conflict. Very often in a problem-solving conflict, the lack of information leads to a distributive negotiation. This can turn into an integrative negotiation when values are created. We propose a framework for pre-negotiation by value creation in water resource conflicts using a Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) approach. When values are created, this means that the parties in conflict want a way to enhance the number of issues that will be shared between them, so there can be improvements for all parties.