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International Water Assessment Centre

The International Water Assessment Centre (IWAC) was established as a collaborative centre of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) at the second meeting of the Parties (March, 2000) under the leadership of the Netherlands. Since then IWAC proved to be an effective operational arm of the Convention and its Protocols, which helped to transform these instruments’ obligations into concrete action on the ground.

Since 2017, the centre is hosted by the Kazakh government in Nur-Sultan. It aims to support the implementation and application of the Water Convention, its Protocol on Water and Health and their respective programmes of work. The Centre’s work focuses on Kazakhstan and its neighbouring countries, other Central Asian countries and beyond. IWAC activities are guided by the principles of neutrality and cooperation, in the best interests of the Water Convention and in accordance with international water law, in order to safeguard credibility, independence and objectivity. Within the overall objective to support accession to and implementation of the Water Convention and its Protocol on Water and Health, the Centre’s terms of reference include organizing training courses, promoting the exchange of expertise and good practices related to the work under the Convention and the Protocol, carrying out and/or coordinating studies related to the work under the Convention and the Protocol, contributing to the activities in the Convention’s and Protocol’s programmes of work and drawing up and implementing projects to support implementation of the Convention and the Protocol.

IWAC programme of work 2019-2021 was adopted by the Meeting of the Parties at its eighth session (Nur-Sultan, 10-12 October 2018). IWAC programme of work 2022-2024 was adopted by the Meeting of the Parties at its ninth session (Geneva, 29 September - 1 October 2021).

Please click here for the press release on the opening of IWAC in Kazakhstan.
Please click here for the Memorandum of Understanding between the Goverment of the Republic of Kazakshtan and the United Economic Commission for Europe on hosting the International Water Assessment Centre in Kazakhstan.
Last update date: April 1, 2022