Progress On Transboundary Water Cooperation

The publication presents and analyses the findings of the first pilot reporting exercise under the Water Convention, which was carried out in 2017. Progress made in the implementation of the Convention is reviewed and summarised, together with the identification of significant trends, success, challenges and opportunities concerning transboundary water cooperation. The reporting mechanism under the Convention was formally adopted (decision VII/2) by the Meeting of the Parties to the Water Convention at its seventh session (Budapest, 17-19 November 2015).

Cooperation over transboundary rivers, lakes and aquifers is critical to ensuring that water resources are managed in an equitable and sustainable manner, and the achievement of SDG6 (water). Transboundary waters also create social, economic, environmental and political inter-dependencies that make cooperation a precondition to sustainable development, peace and security. As the only target in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that makes explicit reference to transboundary cooperation, target 6.5 can play a catalytic role across multiple SDGs and targets. It can generate multiple benefits for the protection of human health, renewable energy provision, sustainable agriculture, climate adaptation, ecosystem protection, and peace and security. This publication presents the results of the initial reporting exercise on indicator 6.5.2 carried out in 2017-2018. It offers valuable insights into the progress achieved in establishing operational arrangements for transboundary waters, and the gaps that remain; and highlights that an acceleration in strengthening transboundary water cooperation is urgently needed to be able to face growing water challenges and prevent conflicts on water use.

"The second progress report provides an analysis of the national reports submitted by Parties to the Convention based on a common reporting template, and therefore closely mirrors the template structure. Following an introduction, providing the context for the second reporting exercise and its results, the responses of Parties to the main parts of the reporting template are reviewed. These are analysed in the transboundary waters, joint bodies for transboundary water cooperation and activities related to the implementation of transboundary water cooperation. A chapter on selected basins takes an in-depth look at the same aspects at the basin level. In the concluding chapter, achievements in the period 2017-2020 are highlighted and detailed recommendations are provided. The analysis presented in the second report is primarily based on the answers provided by the Parties in the reporting template, and the use of other sources is both limited and secondary to those responses"--page v.

This book establishes a framework for defining transboundary water cooperation and a methodology for evaluating its effectiveness, which will contribute to more effective and therefore successful cooperation processes. With the increasing focus on transboundary cooperation as a part of the Sustainable Development Goal Framework, there is global recognition of transboundary water cooperation as a tool for improved governance and management of transboundary surface and groundwaters. However, there is not an agreed upon definition of transboundary water cooperation in the literature or in practice. This book develops the Four Frames of Transboundary Water Cooperation, which is a neutral modular framework for developing context-specific explanatory definitions of transboundary water cooperation in basins and aquifers. The Four Frames of Cooperation are legal, institutional, relational, and outcome. However, we need to move beyond defining cooperation to understand better measures of the quality and effectiveness of cooperative processes. The Weighted Model of Effective Cooperation presents a first step in qualitatively evaluating the effectiveness of transboundary water cooperation. This model defines effective transboundary water cooperation and operationalizes a method to evaluate the effectiveness of cooperative processes over internationally shared waters. Effective cooperation emphasizes the relational and outcome frames of cooperation while working towards equitability and sustainability. Together, the Four Frames of Cooperation and the Weighted Model of Effective Cooperation will improve the understanding of cooperation and encourage a detailed evaluation of the quality, success, and effectiveness of cooperative processes. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of water resource management, water governance, and environmental politics. It will also appeal to policymakers and professionals working in the fields of water conflict, water diplomacy, and international cooperation.

Water cooperation has received prominent focus in the post-2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While proposals for measuring water cooperation appear to be converging toward a small set of indicators, the degree to which these proposed indicators draw on past work is unclear. This paper mines relevant past work to generate guidance for monitoring the proposed SDG target related to transboundary water cooperation. Potential measures of water cooperation were identified, filtered and applied in three countries (Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe). Six indicators were ultimately determined as being suitable for measuring water cooperation. As the SDG process turns its focus to the selection of indicators, the indicators proposed in this paper may merit consideration

This publication is the main output of the "Transboundary Water Cooperation in the Newly Independent States" project. It aims to define the status, trends and further needs with regard to transboundary water cooperation in the Newly Independent States (NIS), and between NIS and their neighbours. The analysis and recommendations will provide a basis for future actions and projects for the development of cooperation in the NIS on transboundary waters, in particular within the work programme of the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) and the Strategic Partnership on Water for Sustainable Development.