Innovating for Transboundary Cooperation
Summary
Progress in transboundary water cooperation is too slow. This can multiply risks and contribute to instability and conflicts. Innovative technologies and approaches in analyzing transboundary dynamics and informing collaborative water management can help address the bottlenecks and obstacles as well as promote ways to enhance the existing transboundary water cooperation.
Session Description
Transboundary waters account for 60 per cent of the world’s freshwater flows, sustaining 3 billion people. Cooperation over transboundary surface and groundwater is therefore essential for sustainable development, environmental health, climate action and resilience, disaster risk reduction, and peace. It allows for the leveraging and sharing of benefits that are not accessible at national scales.
However, two thirds of transboundary basins are not covered by cooperative agreements, whereas most of the existing cooperative frameworks are not fit to deal with future challenges. This can multiply risks and contribute to the destabilization of societies, threatening peace and security.
More than forty governments, international organizations, international financing institutions, NGOs, academia and research centers joined their forces under the Transboundary Water Cooperation Coalition with the objective to sustain and advance transboundary cooperation, including through promotion of innovative tools, approaches and solutions as acceleration alone will not suffice.
The session will highlight the use of innovative technologies and approaches in analyzing transboundary dynamics and informing collaborative water management. It will explore how innovation can help in addressing the bottlenecks in transboundary water cooperation, as well as showcase examples of innovation enhancing the existing and prompting new forms of cooperation.
Programme
Talkshow hostess: Martina Klimes, SIWI
Guests:
- Callist Tindimugaya, Commissioner for Water Resources Planning and Regulation, Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda
- Tanja Miškova, Ambassador-at-Large for Water Diplomacy, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Slovenia
- Zeyad Qodssyeh, young climate diplomat, EcoPeace Middle East, Jordan
Convenors
Time: –
Location: In-Person and Virtual
Date: Thursday, August 24, 2023