This document is to aid the reform processes in water resource management and development. It seeks to guide development towards Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). This paper looks at ‘Why’ IWRM should be implemented. In this section the role IWRM can play in countries, such as in the Macro Economy of countries and in helping developing countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals, is discussed in detail. The paper also looks at ‘What’ the IWRM plans are. In this section the nature of the IWRM is explained to the reader. The third section of this paper deals with ‘How’ IWRM can be implemented. This section gives the reader a detailed, step by step plan on how to effectively implement IWRM by using examples from various countries and provides an extensive overview of what IWRM is.