About The Project
This project is entitled “Good Practices and Portfolio Learning in GEF Transboundary Freshwater and Marine Legal and Institutional Frameworks”. The project is dedicated towards fostering more sustainable governance and more effective decision making in global transboundary international waters management. The objective of the 3 year project is that the identification, collection, adaptation and replication of beneficial practices and lessons learned will be shared with the GEF IW portfolio. The project aims to foster dialogue between individuals and organizations engaged in the governance of international waters. It will build on South-South learning experiences to be sustained in part by a South-South Peer Review Group.
Background
Currently some 2.4 billion people throughout the world do not have access to adequate sanitation. As a result, an estimated 2.3 billion people suffer from water borne diseases. Eighty percent of illnesses are transmitted by contaminated water, yet ninety percent of the wastewater discharged to waterways in developing countries goes untreated.
In response to the emerging global crisis in water scarcity and diminution in water quality, there has been a global water agenda since at least the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972, which famously acknowledged the importance of protecting and improving the human environment. Combinations of governments, experts and nongovernmental organizations have joined to raise international attention and priority to the issues and to commit themselves to addressing the most acute problems. This has resulted in various ministerial declarations proclaiming water as a “security” issue while acknowledging that water scarcity contributes to poverty and water supply to its reduction.
