Shared Waters, Shared Opportunity
The Global Facility for Transboundary Waters is a World Bank–hosted platform that advances water security, resilience, and shared prosperity across rivers, lakes, and aquifers. Established in 2023, the Facility builds upon decades of World Bank knowledge, experience, and operational support in transboundary water management. As a global convener, it curates and brings together this institutional knowledge alongside World Bank tools, financing instruments, and technical expertise — connecting them with riparian governments, river basin organizations, civil society, and development partners in transboundary and cross-jurisdictional basins around the world. This convening role helps countries realize individual priorities through joint action, reducing poverty and fragility risks while unlocking the socioeconomic and environmental benefits of coordinated water management.
The Facility translates knowledge into implementation through a practical four-step pathway: building shared understanding, identifying cooperative solutions, promoting agreement, and catalyzing action. Its work spans analytics and economic assessments, technical assistance, institutional capacity building, and investment facilitation. Distinctively, the Facility addresses the full hydrologic cycle by integrating "blue water" (surface and groundwater) with "green water" (soil moisture and atmospheric flows) and including giving particular attention to topics such as transboundary aquifers and fragile or conflict-affected settings.
At the global level, the Facility curates knowledge and fosters peer learning, including through its bi-annual Global Forum on Transboundary Waters. At basin and country levels, it supports riparian governments and river basin organizations with tools for cooperative planning, nexus assessments, and investment de-risking. By connecting upstream analytics with downstream financing instruments, the Facility helps partners translate cooperative frameworks into tangible projects. It works in close partnership with World Bank regional programs, including CAWEP, CIWA, and DWP, and with international initiatives such as the GWSP and GEF, ensuring engagements are demand-driven, complementary, and scalable.
