Being a member to the OECD multi-stakeholders’ platform Water Governance Initiative (WGI) since its initiation in March 2013, GWP-Med has actively contributed to the development of the Principles on Water Governance, providing constructive feedback for more than two years of intensive work, along with more than 120 other members of the platform.
During the 7th World Water Forum in Korea, the Daegu Declaration was handed to the OECD Secretary-General on 13 April 2015. The Declaration catalyzed massive support for the OECD Principles by more than 65 major stakeholder groups within and outside the water sector, committing to mainstream the principles into their daily practices.
Following their endorsement by key stakeholders, the OECD principles on Water Governance were ultimately approved by the OECD Ministerial Council on 4 June 2015, gaining a strong political impetus and raising their profile as a policy guidance with regards to the discussions on water governance in the Global Agenda, and in light of the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.
The OECD Principles on Water Governance were translated in 15 languages. GWP-Med, servicing as the Secretariat of the Mediterranean Component of the EU Water Initiative (MED EUWI), was responsible for the translation of the principles into Greek, in cooperation with the Special Secretariat of Water of the Hellenic Ministry for Environment and Energy.
Next steps include identifying and scaling up best practices and developing water governance indicators to support the monitoring and implementation of the Principles.