Financed by the Water Diplomacy Programme of the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), BRIDGE (Building River Dialogue and Governance) initiative aims to build water governance capacities through learning, demonstration, leadership, and consensus-building, in particular in transboundary river basins.
Meghna: River of Life for India and Bangladesh
Creating an enabling environment for cooperative governance of shared river basins
Is finance the final frontier to ensure long-term benefits from transboundary cooperation?
The majority of the literature on transboundary water governance suggests that more often than not the benefits of cooperation between riparian states vastly outweigh the costs. Evidence also suggests that investing in transboundary water cooperation and management makes good business sense. Why then, is it still so hard to make the case for financial resources to flow towards cooperation over shared waters in the long term?
Enhancing capacity for improved water cooperation between Zimbabwe and Mozambique
The Buzi-Pungwe-Save (BUPUSA) basins are shared between Mozambique and Zimbabwe. With over 1 million people, its waters are crucial for the well-being and stability of this region in Southern Africa.
Supporting water cooperation between Kenya and Uganda
The Sio-Malaba-Malakisi (SMM) basin is a transboundary watershed spanning 3,240 km2 (roughly the size of Cairo) shared between Kenya and Uganda. The basin's landscape consists of lakes, rivers, forests, game reserves and national parks home to a rich variety of flora and fauna. Over 4 million people live in, and depend on, this rich water system in one of Africa's driest regions.
Sharing the benefits from the river: from theory to practice
The free-flowing nature of water: a gift and a curse. Rivers provide a range of benefits to people and nature, not least access to water for survival. Early civilisations developed in and around rivers, their role pivotal to the evolution of humankind. With a growing population and a changing climate, the challenge to fairly share available freshwater needs to be addressed urgently.
Lake Tititcaca: Empowering women and improving water governance
Women as drivers of change: In an effort to protect Titicaca's unique ecosystem and improve transboundary cooperation using a gender approach, IUCN’s BRIDGE initiative implemented a leadership process aimed to empower local woman in the sustainability and protection of the Lake.
Building River Dialogue and Governance: Hydrodiplomacy in Action
A new Shorthand explains how The BRIDGE programme works towards building river dialogue and governance in transboundary river basins. Implemented by IUCN and regional partners, BRIDGE works at the interface of hydrodiplomacy and local governance to promote new approaches in transboundary water management.