PARTICIPANTS & PROJECTS INVOLVED

• Natalia Alexeeva & Aija Kosk, Lake Peipsi project

HOST INSTITUTION

• Danube Regional Project, UNDP/GEF project

INTRODUCTION, PURPOSE: WHY AN EXCHANGE

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

In order to share experiences on such issues between projects, one of the eight inter-project exchanges selected for the pilot program was proposed by the UNDP.GEF Project “Development and Implementation of the Lake Peipsi/Chudskoe Basin Management Programme” with the following specific objectives to learn best practices regarding:

• Organization of cooperation between the UNDP/GEF project and the Danube Water Commission;
• Internal procedures for planning and communication within the UNDP/GEF project and the Water Commission;
• Coordination of preparation of national water management plans and a basin water management program;
• Incorporation of the EU Water Framework Directive requirements in preparation of the Basin Management Program in the situation when not all countries sharing the Danube Basin are member or accession states of the EU; and finally
• Preparation of the Danube Basin wide public participation plan.

OUTPUTS/OUTCOMES

This mission contributed to the improved knowledge in the following fields:

• Roles, responsibilities and activities of the International Commission on the Protection of the Danube River;
• Danube Environmental Form, its position and role in the Danube River Basin as an example of successful NGO network aimed and increased Public Participation;
• Main NGO activities in water protection in individual countries of the Danube River Basin;
• DEF involvement in regional WFD issues in 2004, current hot issues in the Danube River Basin (Bystroe, Drava, D-O-E Canal) and DEF involvement/support;
• Future capacity building needs for NGOs in the Danube Basin, fundraising opportunities/activities, ideas for the International Danube Day;
• Current stage of the UNDP/GEF Danube Regional Project, its lessons learned and experience in the management issues;
• Role of DEF within the UNDP/GEF Danube Regional Project and the base of their cooperation;
• UNDP/GEF Danube Regional Project and the International Commission on the Protection of the Danube River interrelations as a sample of fruitful cooperation between GEF project and formal institutions;
• Main procedures to issue small grants in the frame of UNDP/GEF project;

This meeting was very useful in terms of an example how the Commissions on Transboundary Waters could work in the multicultural environment and achieve real outcomes agreed among all parties. This case-study could be used both for arranging a study visit of Intergovernmental Estonian-Russian Commission on Transboundary Waters (which is supported by UNDP/GEF Project on lake Peipsi/Chudskoe) and for updating the program of support measures for this Commission based on Danube experience.

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