Water Governance in Europe & CIS

Transboundary Waters

Limited national capacities in the areas of water governance and water resource management have regional implications, and can often be identified as root causes for the inability and/or unwillingness of governments and institutions to discuss, coordinate and cooperate on transboundary water issues. An unbiased, mutually respected outside institution is often called in to help them negotiate solutions to complex transboundary water problems.

UNDP priority areas and activities

UNDP supports international water projects that follow a three-stage process. First, a joint fact-finding process known as a Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) is undertaken. The TDA uses the best available scientific information to examine the status of the water system, key threats, the root causes of its degradation, and the types of remedial and preventive activities needed. This secondly step is the development of a Strategic Action Programme (SAP), a negotiated policy document, based on the principle of Integrated Water Resources management (IWRM) , that sets out the policy and regulatory actions, institutional reforms, and investments needed to protect and rehabilitate the ecosystem. Finally, a set of various concrete interventions including projects at the national and regional levels are created and supported, in order to achieve the goals defined in the SAP.

The UNDP’s extensive experience with transboundary management issues in this region includes project support using GEF funding  to regional water institutions that manage the Danube and Dnieper Rivers, the Caspian Sea, Lake Peipsi and Kura-Aras River basin.

Particularly in view of conflict prevention through transboundary cooperation, UNDP’s regional portfolio in this area links closely to the objectives and activities of the ENVSEC partnership. The Danube - Black Sea Basin is an example of a long-term UNDP/GEF regional intervention, where 17 countries have been supported in a partnership to reverse the long-term degradation of the Black Sea ecosystem caused by excess nutrients and other contaminants.