Background

Under the International Waters focal area, the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) focuses on, among others, strategic programs of overuse and conflicting uses of water resources in surface and groundwater basins, and nutrient over-enrichment and oxygen depletion from land-based pollution of coastal waters in Large Marine Ecosystems (LME). Meanwhile, the GEF also recognizes that links between integrated water resource management (IWRM) and integrated coastal management (ICM) at downstream coasts are of pivotal importance as transboundary cooperation contributes to securing not only local waters uses, but also global public goods that benefit all stakeholders in a true Ridge to Reef (or Source to Sea) approach.

As a cross-cutting topic in all projects, knowledge management through documentation of good practices and replicating them elsewhere can significantly improve the management performance and results of investment. Earlier this year, the GEF endorsed a medium-sized project (MSP) entitled Applying Knowledge Management to Scale up Partnership Investments for Sustainable Development of Large Marine Ecosystems of East Asia and their Coasts implemented by the World Bank and executed by PEMSEA. The project seeks to enhance the capacity and performance of investments in sustainable development of LMEs and coasts in the East Asian Seas region through knowledge and experience sharing, portfolio learning and networking.

Meanwhile, the GEF project, “GEF IW LEARN: Strengthening IW Portfolio Delivery and Impact” or simply, IW:LEARN, has a mandate to further regional inter-basin co-ordination to enhance the management capacity of institutions and project partners.  The objective is to increase communication in between project managers of marine, surface freshwater, and groundwater resources. This mandate is being realized thru a series of targeted workshops and project-project twinning exchanges.

The workshops are also about transferring management approaches, tools and best practices amongst GEF projects and partners to build capacity based on topics deemed the most appropriate by workshop participants. Finally, the workshops are also about supporting participation in the GEF IW Global Communities of Practice for surface freshwater, groundwater and soon also large marine ecosystems. IW:LEARN is partnered with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, at the global level, to help deliver this learning program.

The second targeted workshop for GEF IW Projects in Asia & the Pacific, aims to strengthen the performance of these projects through promotion and facilitation of good policies and practices, and leveraging increased investment in habitat conservation, nutrients reduction and water resource use. The workshop will run back-to-back with the inception of the above GEF MSP.