The Global Water Partnership

What is the Global Water Partnership?

The Global Water Partnership (GWP) was established in 1996 in response to the call during the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro to manage water resources sustainably, in accordance with the Dublin principles, to resolve current and future water crises. The GWP does this through promoting a holistic, participatory and cross-sectoral approach to water management known as integrated water resources management (IWRM).

What GWP means by IWRM
The GWP defines integrated water resources management as a process, which promotes the co-ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximise the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital eco-systems.

The GWP works through a decentralized and inter-connected global network of member institutions, called GWP Partners, that are organized on a regional and country basis in Water Partnerships. These Water Partnerships work to help reorient the activities of existing groups and organizations managing or using water resources to adopt and implement IWRM approaches as a means of achieving water security. They do this by facilitating the exchange of knowledge, experience and practice of IWRM among these groups, helping them identify critical knowledge needs at their respective levels, and designing programs for meeting these needs.

The GWP Partners can be government agencies, regional and local government institutions, training and research institutions, companies and organizations in the private and public sectors, civil society including non-governmental organizations, international and professional organizations, and bilateral and multilateral development agencies.

GWP organisation

Several groups comprise the GWP network, and facilitate and support its work:

GWP Partners: The members of the GWP network.
GWP Consulting Partners (CP). The members representing member organizations at the annual general meeting of the GWP Partner, the Consulting Partners (CP) meeting.
GWP Steering Committee (SC). A group of twenty-two water experts and representatives of the different users of water, and representatives of the financiers of GWP, that meets twice a year to provide oversight and guidance of the work program in the network. This committee acts as a Board of Directors.
GWP Technical Committee (TEC). A group of twelve water experts from around the world that meets twice a year to discuss and develop conceptual ideas and implementation strategies on IWRM.
GWP Secretariat in Stockholm. Headed by the Executive Secretary, the Secretariat is responsible for facilitating the implementation of the GWP work program. The Secretariat provides support to the GWP network in the areas of governance, finance and planning, operational management and communications.
GWP Sponsoring Partners — those governments and international organizations that have signed the Headquarters Agreement of the Global Water Partnership Organization that established the GWP Secretariat in Sweden — who appoint the members of the Steering Committee and approve the annual audited accounts of the GWP.
Finance Partners Group (FPG) — Donor organizations and agencies.
APs — Associate Programs that can provide strategic, technical and program support to regions and countries. These programs are not owned or directed by the Partnership but are independent programmes hosted within different organisations and whose services can be found through the GWP network.
RTACs — The Regional Technical Advisory Committees (RTACs), comprising of around 10 to 12 water professionals from the respective regions. Established in the regions as ‘start engines’ for the development of a network of regional and country water partnerships, many are now in the process of transforming into Regional Water Partnerships (RWPs). This transformation involves a shift from working with a small multidisciplinary team of water professionals to a much larger, broad based cross sectoral and multi-stakeholder group of people.
RWPs — Regional Water Partnerships. Broad based cross-sectoral membership from the countries in the region creating a neutral platform for dialogue on water issues. Each has its own governance structure.
CWPs — Country Water Partnerships. Broad based cross-sectoral membership from the country creating a neutral platform for dialogue on water issues.
AWPs — Area Water Partnerships. Broad based cross-sectoral membership from the area within a country that is established to deal with specific water issue in the area.