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Global workshop - Moving forward transboundary water cooperation: Building on its benefits

06 - 07 February 2018
Salle XI, Palais des Nations Geneva Switzerland

Transboundary water cooperation is necessary to manage shared waters in an integrated and sustainable way. It has the potential to generate many significant benefits for cooperating countries, such as accelerated economic growth, improved human well-being, enhanced environmental sustainability and increased political stability. Nevertheless, many challenges can prevent or delay countries from embracing effective joint management of transboundary waters, including because of an incomplete or biased perception of the benefits that could be attained.

The workshop brought together more than 80 participants representing more than 40 countries as well as organizations from all over the world working on transboundary water cooperation to discuss how the identification, assessment and communication of the broad range of benefits generated by transboundary water cooperation can prompt, support or strengthen cooperation in transboundary basins.

It provided a platform to share experiences, good practices, challenges faced and lessons learnt from transboundary basins where work has been carried out to better understand, analyze and communicate the benefits of transboundary water cooperation as well as the cost of inaction, but also transboundary basins where development had been guided by common benefits/ benefit sharing arrangements.

The workshop was organized under the leadership of the Governments of Estonia and Serbia, with the support of the Water Convention secretariat, serviced by UNECE. Funding for the workshop was provided by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Resources of the Netherlands and the Geneva Water Hub.  

 

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Documents and Presentations

Documents ENG FRE RUS SPA
Draft agenda PDF PDF PDF PDF
Information notice PDF PDF PDF PDF
Policy Guidance Note on the Benefits of Transboundary Water Cooperation: Identification, Assessment and Communication
see publication
 
List of participants PDF      
Presentations ENG FRE RUS SPA

Opening

Introduction to the work on benefits under the Water Convention and objectives of the workshop
Francesca Bernardini, Secretary to the Water Convention, UNECE

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Session 1 - How a dialogue focusing on benefits can facilitate transboundary water cooperation

Introduction to session 1: main messages from the Policy Guidance Note
Chantal Demilecamps, Secretariat of the Water Convention, UNECE

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Prompting and strengthening transboundary water cooperation: can a benefit focus help?
Alejandro Iza, Environmental Law Centre, International Union for Conservation of Nature

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Rethinking water in Central Asia: the costs of inaction and benefits of water cooperation
Benjamin Pohl, Adelphi and Jusipbek Kazbekov, Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia

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Efforts of Uzbekistan on improvement of transboundary water resources cooperation in Central Asia
Vokhidjon Akhmadjonov, Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Uzbekistan

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Benefits of cooperation: an entry point to strengthen regional and bilateral transboundary water cooperation in the IGAD region
Fred Mwango, Intergovernmental Authority on Development

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Session 2 - How to identify, assess and if possible quantify benefits of transboundary water cooperation

Introduction to session 2: main messages from the Policy Guidance Note and reflections from pilots
Roberto Martin Hurtado, Consultant to the Water Convention Secretariat

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Identifying and assessing the benefits of Nexus solutions to improve transboundary water management in the Drina River Basin
Bosko Kenjic, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Benefit sharing opportunities in the Nile Basin
Innocent Ntabana, Executive Secretary, Nile Basin Initiative

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Transboundary cooperation in Georgia and Azerbaijan - Kura River Basin: sharing costs and benefits
Tatiana Efimova, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and Matanat Avazova, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Azerbaijan

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Understanding the benefits of cooperation on the joint management of the North-Western Sahara Aquifer System
Djamel Latrech, Sahara and Sahel Observatory

  PDF    

Session 3 -  How to realize and maximize benefits for the conservation and development of transboundary basins

Transboundary water cooperation: a bedrock for sustainable growth in transboundary basins
Alan Nicol, International Water Management Institute

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Sharing benefits: jointly managing infrastructures in the Senegal River Basin
Fawzi Bedredine, Senegal River Basin Development Organization

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A fruitful management of infrastructure on the Rhone River: cooperation between France and Switzerland
Jérôme Barras, Société des Forces Motrices de Chancy-Pougny, Switzerland

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Transboundary water benefits: contributing to regional integration between Sweden and Finland
Virve Sallisalmi, General Secretary, Finnish-Swedish Transboundary River Commission

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Assessing the common benefits of the joint conservation of transboundary ecosystems
Tobias Salathé, Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

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Assessment of benefits of transboundary water cooperation in the Cubango-Okavango River Basin
Ebenizario Chongica, Executive Secretary, Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission

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Session 4 – How to make greater cooperation through successful communication efforts

Introduction to session 4: main messages from the Policy Guidance Note
Diane Guerrier, Secretariat of the Water Convention, UNECE

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Communicating the benefits of transboundary cooperation and strengthening cooperation over time in the Rhine River Basin
Martine Rohn-Brossard, President of the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine, Swiss Federal Office for the Environment

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Multi-stakeholders engagement: assessing beneficiaries’ priorities to improve transboundary water cooperation in the Putumayo River Basin
Juan Carlos Pomareda, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peru

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Session 5 - How to move the agenda forward

Main outcomes of the buzz discussion on future on future work on benefits of transboundary water cooperation
Diane Guerrier, Secretariat of the Water Convention, UNECE and Roberto Martin Hurtado, Consultant to the Water Convention Secretariat

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Nexus approach and benefits of cooperation in the North Western Sahara Aquifer System
Rachid Taibi, NWSAS Coordinator of the Consultation Mechanism

  PDF