Challenges for the Conference A World Bank Perspective

1. Challenges for the ConferenceA World Bank Perspective Tony Garvey Water Resources Advisor South Asia Region, World Bank

2. World Bank International Waters Portfolio (47 Projects) • Regional Seas (7) Baltic, Caspian, Danube/Black, Aral, Mediterranean,Red, Gulf of Aqaba • Intl River Basins (6) Nile, Niger, Senegal, Lesotho, Parana, Mekong • Lakes (5) Ohrid, Victoria, Malawi, Chad • Groundwater Basins (1) Guarani • Nutrient Pollution Reduction (4) Poland, Rumania, Georgia, Black Sea Partnership • Wetland/Biodiversity Restoration and Conservation (12) • Others related to biodiversity and coastal & marines resources (12)

3. How Do These Projects Fit Into The Bank’s Program? • The Bank’s Program in a Country is driven by two things • The countries development imperitives and priorites for external development financing • The Bank’s mission and priorities • Macro economic management • Poverty Alleviation • Sustainable Development • Good Governance and Public Sector Performance • Enabling market led growth

4. IW Projects Deal with Tranboundary Waters -- What Are We Talking About? • A river or lake basin including its coastal and possibly marine area with multiple political/administrative jurisdictions • These entities may be constitutional, sovereign or statutory -- hence they have legitimate interests and responsibilities founded in law • Problems arise because • Present or future actions cause externalities in other jurisdictions • The scope of development in one jurisdiction may have physical or legal limits that can only be removed by another jurisdiction • There may be major differences in the need for water in time and space that create economic and social risks including sustainability and preemption of future options

5. What Are Some of the Specific Issues? • Environment -- water quality, ecosytem functions, land degradation • Expansion of water services -- power, flood mitigation, water supply for drinking, irrigation, industry, navigation • Financing capital investment • Lack of sustainability -- groundwater depletion, degradation of the hydrologic cycle, erosion and sedimentation, pollution • Gaps in data, information, knowledge -- flood forecasting, hydrologic analysis

6. What Have We Been Trying to Do About These Problems and Issues • Create international institutional frameworks and mechanisms for cooperation • Expand the knowledge and information base -- monitoring, data bases, models, research and studies • Create planning frameworks -- TDAs and SAPs that articulate issues and options, and suggest priorities

7. Can This Approach Work? • Is It Working? • Is It Just Too Early Too Tell? • Are There Important Constraints That We are Ignoring? • What Are The Implications for GEF?

8. External Barriers to Cooperation • The basic approach is appealing -- establish an international framework to address a transboundary, international problem -- but can it be successful if: • There is asymmetry in knowledge, capacity, economic wealth, poverty • Riparians lack experience with integrated planning and water management • Short-term economic and social development priorities and interests differ among riparians • There are significant differences in access to capital and fiscal space

9. Internal Barriers to Cooperation • Lack of an adequate knowledge base • Poor governance in the water sector • Lack of participation of stakeholders • The lack of fiscal space to build capacity and make institutional changes especially in new areas like environmental management • Short-term economic and fiscal returns outweighs long-term investment in institutions and reform • The difficulty in making the transition from supply side management to integrated water management • Few examples of successful national or international river or lake basin management

10. Constraints GEF May Be Ignoring • Lack of country commitment • Wide gulf between focal points/ line ministries/ departments and policy makers -- wants vs means • Policy makers commitments can be measured by how they allocate resources -- low budgets reflect low priority • Policy makers do not have the fiscal space or options to finance the required capacity -- nothing of real value is really free • GEF’s high transaction costs for the country and the Bank are a major disincentives and hinders ownership and commitment -- nothing of real value should necessarily be easy, but nothing should be this hard

11. RETHINKING THE GEF MODEL • The linkage between achieving national sustainable development and capturing global benefits -- local benefits vs global benefits; how can you capture global benefits at the margin if local benefits aren’t achieved or sustainable? • Coherence of GEF Objectives and National Priorities? • Patience vs. Immediate returns and results? Seeing a new reality -- Outcomes versus outputs -- a short intervention to buy down a barrier does not look realistic if a country cannot follow through • Working both sides of the street -- building local capacity to participate in basin or international frameworks for cooperation • BAU+GEF=disappointment and disaster?

12. Can This Approach Work? • Is It Working? • Is It Just Too Early Too Tell? • Are There Important Constraints That We are Ignoring? • What Are The Implications for GEF?