Is multilevel governance an effective approach for transboundary waters?

Co-organized by GWP and the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU CRIS), an online session was held on 15 June 2022 about multilevel governance (MLG) in the context of transboundary waters.

The session is part of a series, dubbed the Transboundary Freshwater Security Governance “Train”, designed to enhance engagement with participants of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Governance for Transboundary Freshwater Security. One of the speakers noted that, “by sharing basins, we are sharing our destinies and we all strive for the same thing, so let´s continue to work together and get everyone on board and involved.”

The session went through the fundamentals of MLG introduced by the co-chair of the event Nidhi Nagabhatla, Senior Fellow United Nations University (UNU CRIS) at McMaster University, Canada, as well as the role of the Implementation Guide for Addressing Water-Related Disasters and Transboundary Cooperation presented by Hanna Plotnykova, Environmental Affairs Officer at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)​.

Helene Masliah-Gilkarov, Technical Expert on Public Participation & Communication at the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR)​, brought the Danube River Basin perspective as an example of MLG in the context of flood risk management. The session also explored two case studies from South Asia on the importance of local communities within MLG discussed by Shawahiq Siddiqui, founding partner of the Indian Environment Law Organization (IELO).

The main session was followed by breakout discussions where participants could ask speakers questions and discuss topics in more depth.

At the end, the moderator, Yumiko Yasuda, Senior Network & Transboundary Water Cooperation Specialist at GWP, invited participants to join the post-event discussion forum on the Transboundary Water Knowledge Exchange Hub where there is also more information about the session (login required).