7th GEF Biennial International Waters Conference (IWC7), 28-31 October, Bridgetown, Barbados

The GEF IW Conference objectives are to facilitate cross-sectoral and portfolio-wide learning and experience sharing. It strives to solicit advice from the existing GEF IW portfolio on burning issues, and to assist in building participant capacity in key management and technical areas. Participants sum up progress achieved and also look to the future of programming within and beyond the GEF IW focal area.

The theme of the 7th GEF Biennial International Waters Conference (IWC7) was “Economic Valuation as a Tool to Bridge the Science-Policy Gap”. The objective of IWC7 was to facilitate experience sharing across the GEF International Waters portfolio, with a special emphasis on reviewing the economic valuation of international waters and the links between economic valuation and science, as well as mechanisms for linking both to policymaking. The IWC7 was organized in Barbados, in part to highlight the issues of water security in Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

The IWC7 convened 208 participants, including GEF IW project managers, representatives of beneficiary countries, non-governmental organizations, transboundary management institutions, UN Agencies, and the private sector. Participants were invited by the GEF Agencies implementing IW projects.

The TWAP consortium (UNEP, UNESCO-IHP, ILEC, UNEP-DHI & UNESCO-IOC) held an interactive plenary session to present its anticipated knowledge products to the GEF IW community, i.e. the suite of environmental, socioeconomic and governance indicators for each transboundary basin category, and examples of assessment results and database platforms that allow access to the products in the public domain (www.geftwap.org). In addition, the session sought advice from the IW community and participating stakeholders on how these products may meet their data and information requirements, thus enhancing the science-based management of international waters at multiple scales.

In addition to the TWAP plenary session, the Marine components of the TWAP (LMEs and Open Ocean, led by UNESCO-IOC) led a session aiming to bring together persons involved in marine assessment and management processes to critically examine the needs for and use of environmental, socio-economic and governance indicators related to the marine environment.

The IWC7 provided an excellent networking platform to connect with other GEF IW projects, and GOs and NGOs working in transboundary water monitoring and evaluation and management. A number of GEF projects such as the UNEP Med Partnership, the GEF ABNJ Communities of Practice Project, and the RAMSAR Convention Secretariat representative, were among those who expressed intent to collaborate with the GEF TWAP.

Fro more information on IWC7 2013: http://iwlearn.net/iwc7