IHE Delft part of new coalition that aims to strengthen commitment to transboundary water cooperation

This year's terrible floods and droughts in almost all corners of the planet and the impact they have caused illustrate the critical importance of water to all aspects of society and our planet. With the second ever United Nations conference on water to take place on 22–24 March 2023, governments and institutions from around the world have come together to form the Transboundary Water Cooperation Coalition. The Coalition, a multistakeholder partnership of governments, intergovernmental organizations, regional integration organizations, international financial institutions, academic institutions and civil society organizations will work to highlight the critical importance of cooperating over shared water resources in a time when doing so is an imperative to ensure water security and sustainable development.

“Capacity among the people and organizations involved is the key factor that determines whether cooperation on shared water resources has the intended results. Therefore, any cooperation commitment should be matched by initiatives and financing to develop the needed capacity - this is a prerequisite for cooperation to be effective and sustainable,” said IHE Delft Institute for Water Education Rector Eddy Moors. “We will use our extensive capacity development expertise to contribute to the Transboundary Water Cooperation Coalition’s work and goals.”

The Coalition, which includes a diverse set of members that support transboundary water cooperation on policy, governance, capacity development, technical support and finance,  aims to:

• Lift the voice of the transboundary water community in a unified manner
• Demonstrate and communicate the benefits of transboundary water cooperation, both for upstream and downstream countries and in the adaptation to new climate challenges
• Provide impetus for concrete commitments related to transboundary water cooperation
• Catalyze support to initiate, sustain and further transboundary water cooperation

The coalition will encourage concrete commitments to support the advancement of transboundary water cooperation by countries and organizations from around the world to be submitted as contributions to the Water Action Agenda, one of the main outcomes of the United Nations 2023 Water Conference.

“Transboundary water cooperation is lagging behind, even more so in transboundary aquifers. With this coalition, we want to prompt additional efforts in transboundary groundwater assessment and management,” said Elisabeth Lictevout, Director of the International Groundwater Resource Assessment Centre, an IHE Delft in-house partner.

The Coalition was launched  on 8 December 2022 during the UN-Water Groundwater Summit in Paris, France, hosted by UNESCO. More information about IHE Delft’s involvement at the summit is available here.

The Coalition includes: Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Namibia, The Netherlands, Senegal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Uganda, Inter-American Development Bank, Organization of American States, World Bank, Global Environment Facility, UNECE, UNESCO, UNEP, UNDP, ESCWA, UNCDF, International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC), Centro Regional para la Gestión de Aguas Subteranneas de América Latina y el Caribe (CeReGAS), Global Water Partnership (GWP), IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, International Network of Basin Organizations (INBO), Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Geneva Water Hub, EcoPeace Middle East and the University of Kinshasa.

The United Nations Conference on the Midterm Comprehensive Review of the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018–2028, or the “United Nations 2023 Water Conference” will convene in New York, from 22 to 24 March 2023, as mandated by the UN General Assembly resolutions 73/226 and 75/212.

One of the interactive dialogues at the UN 2023 Water Conference will be devoted to “Water for Cooperation”, including the topics of Transboundary and International Water Cooperation, Cross Sectoral Cooperation, including Scientific Cooperation, and Water Across the 2030 Agenda. Key outcomes of the UN 2023 Water Conference will include the Water Action Agenda – a set of voluntary commitments taken by governments and stakeholders to accelerate implementation towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 6 and other water-related goals and targets.