50
5 Institutions of Transboundary Water Governance
(UNEP 2005, 2007, 2009a, b, c). The World Bank too, has engaged actively in solving cross-border water issues both at political and policy level, the most notable
example of which is the decade long pressure on India and Pakistan over the conclusion of the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 (Salman 2009).
Mention also must be made of other international or non-governmental organisations that play a significant role in advancing transboundary water governance.
First, the OECD plays a leading role in the elaboration and implementation of the
principles of water governance that also influence transboundary cooperation.
3 The
World Water Council through its flagship events, the World Water Forum series, also
aims to advance river basin cooperation, although its efforts tend to be hampered by
the same political complacency that elevates the subject into the most problematic
area of international water governance (Newton 2014).
5.3.2 Regional Frameworks
Institutionalisation has been more successful at regional level. The true global beacon
of transboundary water collaboration is probably the UN Economic Commission for
Europe (UNECE), the UN’s regional cooperation body for North America, Europe
and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Based on the UNECE Water Convention and its protocols, the Convention’s decision-making bodies and secretariat have
become a real laboratory of progressive cross-border water cooperation. Importantly,
the Convention also benefits greatly from the broader environmental legal architecture of the UNECE (see Sect. 8.2.2). The success of the institutional set-up of the
UNECE Water Convention also gave rise to significant discussions so that its secretariat should also act for the UN Watercourses Convention (McCaffrey 2016).
Besides the UNECE, Africa has also created an intergovernmental body dedicated to international water management issues: the African Ministers’ Council on
Water (AMCOW), established in 2002. AMCOW provides a continent-wide cooperation platform to address, among others, transboundary water management issues.
AMCOW’s 2011 Governance and Management Action Plan specifically calls for the
development and implementation of basin level principles.
4 Such ambition seems
justified by the success of the world’s second largest regional water governance
arrangement developed under the SADC Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourses.
In the Americas the Organisation of American States (OAS) have been active
in drawing up programmes and implementing projects dealing with transboundary
watercourses, but its limited mandate, financial means and technical capabilities do
not allow the organisation to grow into a true supranational centre of water governance
(Del Castillo Laborde 2015). North America, for the obvious reasons mentioned
3 http://www.oecd.org/env/watergovernanceprogramme.htm (accessed 12 February 2019).
4 http://www.amcow-online.org/images/about/Governance%20and%20Management.pdf (accessed
12 February 2019).
5 Institutions of Transboundary Water Governance
(UNEP 2005, 2007, 2009a, b, c). The World Bank too, has engaged actively in solving cross-border water issues both at political and policy level, the most notable
example of which is the decade long pressure on India and Pakistan over the conclusion of the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 (Salman 2009).
Mention also must be made of other international or non-governmental organisations that play a significant role in advancing transboundary water governance.
First, the OECD plays a leading role in the elaboration and implementation of the
principles of water governance that also influence transboundary cooperation.
3 The
World Water Council through its flagship events, the World Water Forum series, also
aims to advance river basin cooperation, although its efforts tend to be hampered by
the same political complacency that elevates the subject into the most problematic
area of international water governance (Newton 2014).
5.3.2 Regional Frameworks
Institutionalisation has been more successful at regional level. The true global beacon
of transboundary water collaboration is probably the UN Economic Commission for
Europe (UNECE), the UN’s regional cooperation body for North America, Europe
and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Based on the UNECE Water Convention and its protocols, the Convention’s decision-making bodies and secretariat have
become a real laboratory of progressive cross-border water cooperation. Importantly,
the Convention also benefits greatly from the broader environmental legal architecture of the UNECE (see Sect. 8.2.2). The success of the institutional set-up of the
UNECE Water Convention also gave rise to significant discussions so that its secretariat should also act for the UN Watercourses Convention (McCaffrey 2016).
Besides the UNECE, Africa has also created an intergovernmental body dedicated to international water management issues: the African Ministers’ Council on
Water (AMCOW), established in 2002. AMCOW provides a continent-wide cooperation platform to address, among others, transboundary water management issues.
AMCOW’s 2011 Governance and Management Action Plan specifically calls for the
development and implementation of basin level principles.
4 Such ambition seems
justified by the success of the world’s second largest regional water governance
arrangement developed under the SADC Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourses.
In the Americas the Organisation of American States (OAS) have been active
in drawing up programmes and implementing projects dealing with transboundary
watercourses, but its limited mandate, financial means and technical capabilities do
not allow the organisation to grow into a true supranational centre of water governance
(Del Castillo Laborde 2015). North America, for the obvious reasons mentioned
3 http://www.oecd.org/env/watergovernanceprogramme.htm (accessed 12 February 2019).
4 http://www.amcow-online.org/images/about/Governance%20and%20Management.pdf (accessed
12 February 2019).