Workshop on recent progress on transboundary water cooperation in Geneva

Event Date

Over the past decades, there has been a considerable increase in the number of legal and institutional frameworks for transboundary water management. However, in the last ten years progress has somewhat slowed down and few new agreements have been signed. In addition, some basins with existing legal and institutional frameworks for transboundary water cooperation face challenges, e.g. in broadening their cooperation to deal with intersectoral issues, revising agreements and institutional structures or sustaining their operations. More therefore needs to be done, in all regions of the world, at early or more advanced stages of cooperation, to improve and strengthen cooperation on transboundary surface and ground waters.

Therefore, a workshop on 'Recent progress on transboundary water cooperation: from getting cooperation started to its long-term sustainability' will be held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva (Switzerland) on the 4th of July 2017, back-to-back with the twelfth meeting of the Working Group on Integrated Water Resources Management (WGIWRM) under the Water Convention (5-6 July 2017)

Objectives

The main objective of the workshop is to support countries and basin organizations in advancing step-by-step their cooperation on transboundary surface and ground waters, especially with regard to the development and revision of agreements, and setting up and sustaining joint bodies.

By gathering experience and sharing lessons learned from recent developments in different parts of the world, in basins where cooperation is at different levels of advancement, the workshop will aim to galvanize progress, by showing that it is possible to start or engage in the next step of cooperation, even in challenging circumstances.

  • More specifically, the workshop will aim at illustrating experiences and lessons learned from recent developments (last 5-7 years), in particular:
  • In the starting off of cooperation and step-by-step establishment of the legal and institutional frameworks for cooperation, including new agreements and arrangements; In the progressive development and long term support to cooperation.

The workshop should allow identifying common challenges and inform the discussion on the future work under the Water Convention for the triennium 2019-2021.