International Hydro-diplomacy: Building & Strengthening Transboundary Water Cooperation

Key recommendations and findings from the third iteration of the KAS and Stimson Center’s high-level dialogue series

These policy recommendations necessitate a call to action on enhancing cooperation and strengthening transboundary water governance. Shared river basins face several challenges ranging from the securitization of natural resources impeding cooperative approaches to a lack of financing for appropriate institutional development for joint river management. The recommendations offer some pathways to improve transboundary water cooperation and develop collaborative structures and institutions, both at national and regional levels.

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Executive Summary

Over the last decades, exacerbating climate change, shifting water patterns, and depleting groundwater resources, coupled with rising population growth, have all resulted in significant socio-economic and political implications around the globe. Over 2 billion people in the world currently lack access to safe drinking water and, if projections are to hold true, over half of the world’s population will reside in water-stressed areas by 2025. This heightens concerns over the world’s preparedness for the multi-faceted ramifications stemming from intensifying water insecurity. There is still limited policy foresight and sagacity when it comes to effectively managing and governing water resources and the challenge is even more magnified in the case of transboundary water resources.

Water resources which cross national boundaries are particularly vulnerable to water insecurity and water-induced conflicts due to competing national demands and interests of riparian countries. To this end, hydro-diplomacy and cooperation can play a critical role in building and strengthening transboundary water governance institutions, promoting inter-and intra-regional connectivity, and developing a more nuanced sense of decision-making among all stakeholders. Hydro-diplomacy, as we understand it, involves a set of skills, tools, and strategies that enable stakeholders, specifically at a political level, to negotiate and mediate water-related disputes peacefully and achieve sustainable and equitable management of water resources. Much of hydro-diplomacy’s success is often contingent on efficient transboundary water governance institutions or River Basin Organizations (RBOs) that can facilitate collective action and implementation of effective water governance, promote integrated water resources management, and ensure the participation and representation of all stakeholders, including marginalized and vulnerable groups.

This paper lays out key recommendations and findings from the third iteration of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and Stimson Center’s high-level dialogue series on Water Security and International Hydro-diplomacy held in November 2022, in Brussels, Belgium. The discussants, through extensive analysis and evaluation, worked on a set of recommendations aimed toward policymakers and all water stakeholders on how to build shared understanding, facilitate capacity-building, strengthen transboundary water cooperation, and proactively engage in hydro-diplomacy.

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