1. Challenges for the Conference
A World Bank Perspective
Tony Garvey
Water Resources Advisor
South Asia Region, World Bank

2. World Bank International Waters
Portfolio (47 Projects)
Regional Seas (7) Baltic, Caspian, Danube/Black, Aral,
Mediterranean, Red, Gulf of Aqaba
Intl River Basins (6) Nile, Niger, Senegal, Lesotho,
Parana, Mekong
Lakes (5) Ohrid, Victoria, Malawi, Chad
Groundwater Basins (1) Guarani
Nutrient Pollution Reduction (4) Poland, Rumania,
Georgia, Black Sea Partnership
Wetland/Biodiversity Restoration and
Conservation (12)
Others related to biodiversity and coastal &
marines resources (12)

3. How Do These Projects Fit Into The
Bank’s Program?
The Bank’s Program in a Country is
driven by two things
 The countries development imperitives and
priorites for external development financing
 The Bank’s mission and priorities
• Macro economic management
• Poverty Alleviation
• Sustainable Development
• Good Governance and Public Sector Performance
• Enabling market led growth

4. IW Projects Deal with Tranboundary
Waters -- What Are We Talking About?
A river or lake basin including its coastal and
possibly marine area with multiple
political/administrative jurisdictions
These entities may be constitutional, sovereign or
statutory -- hence they have legitimate interests and
responsibilities founded in law
Problems arise because
 Present or future actions cause externalities in other
jurisdictions
 The scope of development in one jurisdiction may have
physical or legal limits that can only be removed by another
jurisdiction
 There may be major differences in the need for water in
time and space that create economic and social risks
including sustainability and preemption of future options

5. What Are Some of the Specific Issues?
Environment -- water quality, ecosytem
functions, land degradation
Expansion of water services -- power, flood
mitigation, water supply for drinking,
irrigation, industry, navigation
Financing capital investment
Lack of sustainability -- groundwater
depletion, degradation of the hydrologic
cycle, erosion and sedimentation, pollution
Gaps in data, information, knowledge -- flood
forecasting, hydrologic analysis

6. What Have We Been Trying to Do
About These Problems and Issues
Create international institutional
frameworks and mechanisms for
cooperation
Expand the knowledge and information
base -- monitoring, data bases, models,
research and studies
Create planning frameworks -- TDAs and
SAPs that articulate issues and options,
and suggest priorities

7. • Can This Approach Work?
• Is It Working?
• Is It Just Too Early Too Tell?
• Are There Important Constraints That
We are Ignoring?
• What Are The Implications for GEF?

8. External Barriers to Cooperation
The basic approach is appealing --
establish an international framework to
address a transboundary, international
problem -- but can it be successful if:
 There is asymmetry in knowledge, capacity,
economic wealth, poverty
 Riparians lack experience with integrated
planning and water management
 Short-term economic and social development
priorities and interests differ among riparians
 There are significant differences in access to
capital and fiscal space

9. Internal Barriers to Cooperation
Lack of an adequate knowledge base
Poor governance in the water sector
Lack of participation of stakeholders
The lack of fiscal space to build capacity and
make institutional changes especially in new
areas like environmental management
Short-term economic and fiscal returns
outweighs long-term investment in institutions
and reform
The difficulty in making the transition from
supply side management to integrated water
management
Few examples of successful national or
international river or lake basin management

10. Constraints GEF May Be Ignoring
Lack of country commitment
 Wide gulf between focal points/ line ministries/
departments and policy makers -- wants vs means
 Policy makers commitments can be measured by
how they allocate resources -- low budgets reflect
low priority
 Policy makers do not have the fiscal space or
options to finance the required capacity -- nothing
of real value is really free
GEF’s high transaction costs for the country
and the Bank are a major disincentives and
hinders ownership and commitment --
nothing of real value should necessarily be
easy, but nothing should be this hard

11. RETHINKING THE GEF MODEL
The linkage between achieving national
sustainable development and capturing global
benefits -- local benefits vs global benefits; how
can you capture global benefits at the margin if
local benefits aren’t achieved or sustainable?
Coherence of GEF Objectives and National
Priorities?
Patience vs. Immediate returns and results? Seeing
a new reality -- Outcomes versus outputs -- a short
intervention to buy down a barrier does not look
realistic if a country cannot follow through
Working both sides of the street -- building local
capacity to participate in basin or international
frameworks for cooperation
BAU+GEF=disappointment and disaster?

12. • Can This Approach Work?
• Is It Working?
• Is It Just Too Early Too Tell?
• Are There Important Constraints That
We are Ignoring?
• What Are The Implications for GEF?