G77 Ministerial Forum on Water

1. G77 Ministerial Forum on Water 23-25 February 2009, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman UNDP’s experience with South-South Cooperation in Transboundary Waters Management and Knowledge Sharing on Water Andrew Hudson Cluster Leader & Principal Technical Advisor, Int’l Waters Water Governance Programme United Nations Development Programme

2. UNDP Water Governance Programme – Strategic Priorities • IWRM - Reduce poverty and vulnerability, sustain and enhance livelihoods and protect environmental resources by helping countries to achieve equitable allocation and efficient water resources management through adaptive water governance • Water Supply & Sanitation - Reduce poverty and vulnerability, sustain and enhance livelihoods, and protect environmental resources by helping countries to achieve or exceed the water supply and sanitation MDGs through adaptive water governance • Regional & Global Cooperation - Enhance regional and global cooperation, peace, security and socio-economic development through adaptive governance of shared water resources

3. Shared Waters are the norm, not the exception • Globally, there are 263 watersheds that cross the political boundaries of two or more countries, representing about one half of the earth’s land surface and forty percent of global population; • 145 countries have territory within one or more of these international basins; • There are an estimated 300 transboundary aquifer systems in the world; • Two-thirds of the world’s 64 “Large Marine Ecosystems” (LME), where 85% of the world’s annual wild fish harvest are caught, are shared by two or more countries

4. UNDP-GEF International Waters Portfolio – Freshwater Basins • CEEurope/C. Asia – 9 waterbodies • Danube, Dnipro, Kura-Aras, Tisza River basins • Lakes Baikal, Peipsi, Prespa • Caspian Sea • Dinaric Karst aquifer • Asia-Pacific – 1 waterbody • Seistan River basin • Africa – 8 waterbodies • Nile, Niger, Senegal, Orange, Okavango river basins • Lakes Tanganyika, Chad, Manzala • Latin America – 3 waterbodies • Rio de la Plata, Artibonito River • Lake Titicaca • Arab States – 2 waterbodies • Nile River, Nubian Aquifer • Small Island Developing States – 33 SIDS • Pacific SIDS • Caribbean SIDS • SE Atlantic & Indian Ocean SIDS

5. Lessons Learned in facilitating effective multi-country governance of shared waterbodies – UN Water • Legal Instruments • 1997 UN Convention on Non-navigable uses of Int’l Watercourses core principles (equitable use, no harm) already part of int’l customary law • 2002 UN ECE Convention on TB Watercourses & Lakes has served as basis for new agreements (e.g. Danube) • ECE Convention amended (not yet in force) to make open for accession by all-UN member states • MEAs (CBD, UNCCD, etc.) provide further frameworks for regional cooperation • ILC Draft Articles law of transboundary aquifers – May 2008 • Challenges remain: 158 of world’s 263 TB river basins lack any regional cooperation framework

6. Lessons Learned in facilitating effective multi-country governance of shared waterbodies – UN Water • Legal Instruments • Elements of ‘good’ transboundary legal instruments include: • Clearly set out institutional arrangements • Clear enforcement and dispute resolution mechanisms • Incorporate both water quality & quantity, climate change, societal values • Identify clear means to share benefits of water, not just the water itself • Provisions for joint monitoring, info exchange, public participation • Mechanisms that promote water-related joint economic development • Common weaknesses: • Weak capacity to implement and enforce • Inadequate integration of environment • Limited sectoral scope • Non-inclusion of important riparians

7. Lessons Learned in facilitating effective multi-country governance of shared waterbodies • Institutional Structures & Capacity Development • Clear mandates for both regional and national bodies • Strong cross-sectoral coordination at national level • Strong political will & financing commitment • Involvement of appropriate range of stakeholders • Appropriate RBO rules of procedure and terms of reference • Staff – broad competencies and multi-disciplinary skills • Negotiation, diplomacy, conflict resolution skills • Joint bodies need to provide: • Coordination & Advisory functions • Policy development and implementation • Dispute settlement, monitoring & reporting

8. Lessons Learned in facilitating effective multi-country governance of shared waterbodies • Information Exchange/Joint Monitoring & Assessment • Accurate assessment info essential for informed decision-making & policy formulation • Need for comparable info between countries • Harmonized, compatible assessment methods & data mgmt systems; agreed terminologies • Information exchange essential – accidents, infrastructure, extreme events, hydropower & navigation operations, etc. • Integrated Approaches • IWRM principles as applied to TB river basin; many multi-country agreements are highly sectoral • Land/water/ecosystem management that maximizes social welfare without compromising ecosystems • Multi-faceted, flexible decision-making processes • Adaptive management

9. Lessons Learned in facilitating effective multi-country governance of shared waterbodies – UN Water • Participatory Approaches to Regional Management • Help to maximize agreement • Enhance transparency & decision-making • Facilitate acceptance & enforcement of decisions/policies of shared waters institutions • Mechanism for gaining common ground between stakeholders • Requires financial resources to be effective • Organize openly & transparently • Involve all relevant groups (stakeholder analysis)

10. Lessons Learned in facilitating effective multi-country governance of shared waterbodies – UN Water • Benefits and Cost-Sharing • Focus on use of water to generate benefits, not on • allocation of water • Optimize generation of basin-wide benefits • Work to share the benefits equitably • Even under benefit sharing approaches, will often be • difficult trade-offs and choices • Payments for benefits/compensation for costs can be • integral element of cooperative arrangements • Payments for ecosystem services – new, innovative

11. Lessons Learned in facilitating effective multi-country governance of shared waterbodies – UN Water • Financing • Short and long-term financing essential for legal • frameworks, new institutions, capacity building, AND • investments • As always, diversify: national, local, donors, etc. • Innovative financial mechanisms • Regional revolving funds • Payments for ecosystem services • (equitable) cost recovery for water services • Require strong political support, good governance and • effective institutions

12. Lessons Learned in promoting South-South knowledge exchange on Integrated Water Resources Management – UNDP’s CapNet Programme • Capacity building is most effective when it is delivered from local knowledge centres by local professionals; • Long term support to capacity development can only come from knowledgeable local resource centres (donors come and go); • Bringing in regional experts is often more appreciated than international experts and can allow for more continuous collaboration over time; • S-S sharing of experience is most responsive to the real needs of the developing world and more likely to lead to action;

13. Lessons Learned in promoting South-South knowledge exchange on Integrated Water Resources Management – UNDP CapNet Programme • South-South Collaboration is often donor driven; by identifying local capacity needs, the Cap-Net network partners have been able to set the capacity building agenda and undertake activities that build capacity to improve water resources management and multiply the number of resource persons, creating independent national and regional capacity; • Greater regional collaboration in terms of research projects, post-graduate education, case study exchanges, joint facilitation of training courses and learning exchange visits has narrowed the gap in water resources management by providing a series of platforms for stakeholder dialogue and first-hand exchange of knowledge and experience.

14. Lessons Learned in promoting South-South knowledge exchange on Transboundary Waters Management – International Waters: LEARN • The Biennial GEF International Waters conferences have become a pivotal South-South portfolio learning event • Identification of many common problems and challenges • Can learn as much from others’ failures as successes • Southern participants have the most to contribute (vs. North) • Participants self-organize along technical, governance, ecosystem or geographical lines • Variety of learning styles employed (formal, informal, face-face, virtual, etc.) • Regional dialogue processes can help foster trust and confidence and trigger transboundary cooperation • 'Athens/Petersberg' process helped to validate the concerns of stakeholders in the SEEurope region as a collective; • Provision of sustained support enabled the opening of a consultative knowledge-sharing and participative peer learning space; • Participants must genuinely own the process, because if one side feels manipulated by the other they will withdraw; • Can be catalytic, leading to spin-off activities

15. Lessons Learned in promoting South-South knowledge exchange on Transboundary Waters Management – International Waters: LEARN • Inter-project peer learning exchanges have proven to be possibly the most powerful mechanism for south-to-south knowledge transfer • Participants on each side engage in reflecting on how and why various tools and approaches have or have not worked and why their lessons might be worth sharing • When projects define their own learning objectives, the learning exchange process itself generally proves to be mutually valuable • Collaborations - create opportunities (and incentives) to learn together, including creative joint problem-solving and peer assisting activities like clinics • Meals and libations - unscheduled "down-time" seals the bonds of eternal camaraderie, thus should not be abbreviated or overrun by keynotes which prevent peer-to-peer interactions • S-S exchange occurs most effortlessly when professionals working towards common ends in parallel conditions grow personal connections and confidence in each other which encourage them to call on one another for assistance and goodwill to preemptively offer or respond to the same

16. Thank you! Andrew Hudson UNDP Water Governance Program FF-998 1 UN Plaza New York, NY 10017 Tel 1 212 906 6228 Fax 1 212 906 6998 Email: andrew.hudson@undp.org Web: www.undp.org/water