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LEARN-ing to better manage our international waters

UNDP/UNEP GEF IW:LEARN

By IW:LEARN

December 13^th, 2016

The name says it all: The GEF International Waters Learning Exchange and Resource Network, or IW:LEARN. For sixteen years, GEF IW:LEARN has helped strengthen transboundary water management around the globe by collecting and sharing best practices, lessons learned, and innovative solutions to common problems across the GEF International Waters portfolio.

2016 marks the beginning of the new phase of IW:LEARN and the start of its co-executed sister project, LME:LEARN. Together, the two projects will help promote learning among project managers, country officials, implementing agencies, and other partners in GEF International Waters projects.

Both projects offer a suite of technical and financial assistance that have become standardized as IW:LEARN enters into its sixteenth year of operations. While IW:LEARN provides support to the entire portfolio of GEF International Waters projects, this phase contains additional support aimed at building the capacity of river and lake basin projects in areas such as the water-energy-food nexus, climate change and variability, benefit sharing, legal and institutional support for basin organizations, sustainable infrastructure, and conjunctive management of surface and groundwater. For its part, LME:LEARN will undertake additional activities in support of the marine portfolio. In order to carry out proper regional governance of Large Marine Ecosystem regions, coordination between LME, Marine Protected Area, and Integrated Coastal Management projects will be supported.

The focal point of the project is the IW:LEARN website which serves as the premiere results archive and data management service for the GEF International Waters portfolio. The site makes available case studies and best practices, Transboundary Diagnostic Analyses and Strategic Action Programmes from projects around the world, news and events related to International Waters, and targeted knowledge sharing tools to practitioners and the wider public. The website also hosts a unique Portfolio Visualization Tool and Portfolio Results Archive that allows users to quickly discover and analyze the impacts of GEF interventions across the world. Guidance documents and other resources are also made available here to further disseminate the experiences of International Waters projects. We are currently creating a brand-new website for IW:LEARN, to make it more user-friendly and to improve the overall user experience. See below for a preview of the new home-page.

In addition to the website, both IW:LEARN and LME:LEARN supports GEF International Waters projects through activities such as face-to-face training and knowledge sharing activities. The GEF Biennial International Waters Conference (IWC) is the signature learning event for the GEF International Waters portfolio. Bringing together a broad range of stakeholders, the conference aims to facilitate cross-sectoral and portfolio-wide learning and experience sharing, and to assist in building capacity in key management and technical areas. The Ninth GEF IWC is set for 2018. In addition to the IWC, both projects also supports Targeted Training activities to support water resources management and capacity building, Regional Dialogues and Workshops to help foster transboundary cooperation, Project Twinning for face-to-face engagement between project sharing common objectives or challenges and Global Dialogue Participation support to build partnerships with organizations working outside the immediate GEF IW portfolio

IW:LEARN has been a leader in designing and delivering new management tools, guidance and approaches for International Waters projects. The new phase of IW:LEARN will undertake activities to support gender mainstreaming by introducing systematic consideration of gender equity, women’s empowerment, and social inclusion into International Waters projects for the improved management of transboundary waters. IW:LEARN will also support private sector engagement to help facilitate effective partnerships between projects and private enterprises. Activities will include training on water stewardship and risk tools, dialogues on business participation in water resource management, and multi-stakeholder basin funds. IW:LEARN will also aim to improve the quality of the SAPs to ensure that they focus on actions that can realistically be implemented through new guidance. LME:LEARN, will provide additional value-added support in terms of governance, ecosystem-based management, environmental economics, data and information management, marine spatial planning and stakeholder engagement.

Caption left photo: Micheal Akester, Project Manager Humboldt Current LME (GEF-UNDP-UNOPS), gives his "Pecha Kucha" format presentation on project achievements

Caption right photo: Naoko Ishii, CEO of the GEF, takes in a presentation on how we achieve the freshwater and marine-coastal SDGs, accompanied by Ministers of Environment from the Seychelles and Maldives, as well as representatives of the Sri Lankan Government

Please feel free to contact us regarding your needs for training specific themes (including topics such as legal-institutional frameworks, gender mainstreaming, economic valuation, climate change and variability, benefit sharing and many others), project-project twinning exchanges, website hosting/establishment, TDA-SAP development, and upcoming International Waters events. And please send us stories from your International Waters project so that we can share it with the rest of the community! You can reach us at: info@iwlearn.org.

GEF IW:LEARN is funded by the Global Environment Facility and implemented jointly by the United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Environment Programme, with project execution led by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and GRID-Arendal.