The Shared Waters Cooperation Facility is a global convening platform that brings together diverse partners, inter-governmental organisations and technical and knowledge partners to coordinate and ensure more effective, consistent and accelerated support for transboundary water cooperation.

The purpose of the Facility is to:

1. Empower cooperation on shared waters and support stakeholders to navigate and negotiate agreements for water resource protection and management

2. Provide and source appropriate expertise that can facilitate dialogue and joint action where cooperation has slowed or stopped

3. Respond to the needs of stakeholders through matching services to problem solving, connecting solutions, and supporting learning to improve performance

The Facility prioritises basins and cooperative processes where challenges result from or drive lack of agreement on water cooperation. These challenges could include a reluctance to solve problems such as changes in upstream water use affecting downstream river flows, or through the need to update existing agreements and cooperation over water between States due to shifting national and regional contexts.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/Daniel Prudek - Upper Part of Amu Darya River, on the Tajik-Afghanistan border

Activities will initially focus on basins within the greater Mekong region, as well as the Karatag River, a tributary of the Amu Darya River shared between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; and the Meghna basin, shared between India and Bangladesh. Partnership will be key to support cooperation across wide-ranging stakeholders from local to basin and regional levels. The Facility will identify and support existing successful approaches and, where needed, develop relationships to support technical dialogues and exchange, institutional support, and inter-governmental cooperation through:

Assessment:

      Interactive facilitation and tools as well as analytical support to provide science-based data, research and analysis for stakeholder exchanges, negotiations and agreements.

Support services:

      Provision of advisory support on legal, institutional, benefit sharing, investment needs and resource management aspects of cooperation strategies to support governance needs and development of joint initiatives and projects.

Knowledge management:

      Collection of evidence on the benefits of collaboration to demonstrate to diverse stakeholders effective mechanisms and best practices to support transboundary water cooperation.

Convening:

    Organisation of roundtables and meetings among States, the donor community, inter-governmental organisations, private sector and knowledge partners to develop strategies for inclusive and long-term support and investment in transboundary water cooperation.