As part of its work programme for 2009-12 the EUWI-FWG is looking into financing for water resources development and management. A key aspect of this work, as raised at the EUWI Coordination Group meeting in November 2009, is the issue of financing transboundary water activities. A desk study is planned with a focus on Africa and as a first step the EUWI-FWG requested SIWI to produce a short concept note setting out the various aspects of financing for transboundary water management (TWM), linkages to development outcomes, financing opportunities and a proposal for a further study based on the following issues:
- special issues related to financing transboundary waters with reference to regional funding for other sectors;
- examples of how different financing mechanism are being used to provide support with pros and cons of different approaches; and
- guidance/recommendations on the niche for EU bi-laterals and EC so they can support riparian states through more practical interventions using both their own bilateral funds and putting together packages of funding from different sources.
The structure of the paper is as follows: first the cooperative aspect of transboundary water resources management and development is analysed; secondly, the crisis of financing water for development outcomes is presented at the transboundary scale with linkages to the national and local scales; thirdly, risk preventing financing is analysed and finally different financing instruments are examined. The paper concludes with suggestions for further analytical steps.