Where Waters Meet: A Convening Approach
The Global Facility for Transboundary Waters acts as a convener, bringing together World Bank knowledge and tools with governments, basin organizations, civil society, and development partners to support sustainable management of shared water resources. Its approach integrates the full hydrologic cycle and places particular emphasis on transboundary aquifers and fragile or conflict-affected settings, where cooperation can reduce risk and build resilience.
The Facility convenes and connects across boundaries by:
- Building a shared understanding through curation of World Bank knowledge products, including basin and aquifer diagnostics, vulnerability mapping, and political economy analysis.
Identifying cooperative solutions by quantifying the economic benefits of cooperation and the costs of inaction, using nexus and benefit assessments to shape multisector investment plans.
Promoting agreement by facilitating dialogue, strengthening water diplomacy and negotiation capacity, supporting stakeholder participation, and advising on legal and institutional frameworks.
Catalyzing action by designing cooperative investment roadmaps, convening finance roundtables, and providing technical advice to prepare and de-risk joint projects.
The Facility operates across global, basin, and country levels. Globally, it convenes stakeholders and curates knowledge, including by:
Hosting the bi-annual Global Forum on Transboundary Waters
Organizing thematic exchanges such as Basin Roundtables
At the basin and country level, the Facility provides technical assistance and capacity building to riparian governments and river basin organizations, connecting analytical work with financing instruments to translate cooperative engagements into tangible investments.
