GEF IW Experience Notes

The GEF International Waters Experience Notes help the Transboundary Water Management (TWM) community share its practical experiences in promoting better TWM. Experiences include successful practices, approaches, strategies, lessons, and methodologies, that emerge in the context of TWM.

GEF IW projects are asked to prepare Experience notes at their mid-term evaluation and final evaluation. Completed notes should be 3-7 pages long, and will be via GEF IW:LEARN and its iwlearn.net Web site, as well as at selected GEF IW events. Please note that the titles below are abbreviated and sorted in line with principle indicators drawn mainly from the GEF IW Tracking Tool. Additional guidance and a template on producing Notes is available here: Guidance template for GEF IW Experience Notes.

In addition, GEF IW:LEARN is now encouraging GEF projects to prepare Video Experience Notes in addition to written ones. The project hopes these will be a more compelling, engaging version of the written documents that will allow projects to show their experiences in addition to reporting them. Video notes as such are marked below. Please read this guidance document on the production of video notes for further advice. In addition, with great apprecitation to the GEF-UNDP Kura-Aras River project and its project manager Mary Matthews, we have a guidance video offering advice on the preparation of video notes.

Click here for the Experience Note Abstract Compendium, a handy collection of abstracts from all the Notes below.

A * indicates that the indicator is derived from the GEF IW Tracking Tool.

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Integrating Fisheries and Habitat Management: Fisheries Refugia in the South China Sea

This note covers an effort to address the over-exploitation of fisheries. Increasing levels of fishing effort, coupled with continued decline in the total area of habitats critical to the life-cycles of most species, have raised serious concerns for the long-term sustainability of artisanal fisheries. Given the feed back loops between fish stock and habitat quality on the one hand, and fishing activities and habitat quality on the other it was necessary to develop a regional initiative aimed at improving the management of fish stocks and their habitats.

Plastic waste – a very visible indicator of pollution

Plastic waste is a global issue that has received relatively little attention within the GEF IW community. Plastic waste also serves as a very visible indicator of pollution and solving the problem of inappropriate disposal may have additional benefits of reducing other pollutants and helping to engender an enhanced appreciation of the environment.

How Codes of Good Agricultural Practices Contribute to Nutrient Reduction

The overall project development objective has been to increase significantly the use of environment-friendly agricultural practices in the project area and thereby reduce nutrient discharge from agricultural sources in Romania to the Danube River and Black Sea. The issue was strengthening national policy and regulatory capacity regarding water protection against pollution with nutrients originating from agriculture.

Designing Constructed Wetlands for Multiple Uses

The Ningbo Water and Environment Project is being implemented in the Ningbo Municipality of Zhejiang Province in China, south of the Hangzhou Bay.

Demonstrating the Suitability of Using Engineered Wetlands as a Low-cost Alternative for Treating Sanitary Sewage

The Lake Manzala Engineered Wetlands Project (LMEWP) is a successful demonstration of the use of engineered wetlands to treat and reuse wastewater. The demonstration project has shown thatengineered wetland treatment facilities constitute an effective, low-cost, low maintenance option and arewell-suited for the climatic and operational conditions present in the Nile Delta of Egypt. Reduction rates of 61 % of BOD, 51% of Total Nitrogen and 99.7 % total Coliform bacteria have been collected at theproject site, demonstrating a highly efficient technology.

Nature’s Answers to the Sanitation Challenge: The Application of Constructed Wetland Technology for Wastewater Management

The coastal zone of the Western Indian Ocean region is the site of most major cities, harbours, industries and other socio-economic infrastructure, which increasingly affect the environment. One of the technologies being promoted by UNEP-GPA WIO-LaB project is that of constructed wetland treatment systems. This note describes several completed demonstration projects. The projects have led to a number of important lessons learnt, covering: cost-efficiency, learning from experience, stakeholder buyin and ownership and technology.

Using Sound Science to Influence Policy and Improve Management of the World’s Coral Reefs

This note draws on finding recently published in science related to climate change impacts on coral reefs. It seeks to demonstrate the role or research in building capacity, creating awareness, informing the policy debate and promoting urgent management actions to create a brighter future for the world's coral reefs.

Lake Chad: Tackling Implementation Challenges Early On

This note covers how the Lake Chad Basin GEF project has responded to initial delays inproject implementation.

Lessons-learned on Project Management Structure: Rio São Francisco

In order to execute the project, ANA made special institutional arrangements and cooperationagreements with the main federal, state and municipal institutions as well as NGOs involved in the project thus providing a strong institutional framework for the project. In order to overcome the previous lack ofintegration among subprojects, the Technical Coordination established a program of meetings for clusters of subprojects working in similar thematic areas.

Education, Awareness and Technology to Prevent Mercury Pollution from Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining

The Global Mercury Project (GMP) was implemented in order to begin a global response to address environmental impacts resulting from mercury released by the Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) sector. The relatively poor knowledge or involvement of governments within the sector hampers sustainability initiatives. The awareness campaign provided education about the hazards of ASM activities, with a focus on mercury, to local and national citizens in pilot project countries.

Policy and Governance Measures to Prevent Mercury Pollution from Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining

The project activity aimed primarily to improve the underlying Policy and Governance mechanisms and capacity of participant countries relating to both mercury and the broader artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) industry. Policy aimed at preventing mercury pollution of rivers and lakes is intricately tied to a multiplicity of other issues – rural poverty, legality of artisanal miners, alternative livelihoods, international trade, etc.

Lessons-learned Reporting on Project Management Structure: WIO-Lab

The WIO-LaB project workplan is based upon the Nairobi Convention workplan. The synergy between the project and the policy/programme level, provides an important advantage. Despite these important advantages, it should be noted that the capacity of the focal points (technical, financial and human resources) for coordination of the different project activities, which cover a wide range of issues, may in cases be limited.

Leveraging Local Actions Through Matched Small Grants and the Caspian Concern Groups

This note takes a glance at the Caspian Sea project's small grants programme. One of the project's objectives was to achieve tangible environmental improvements in priority areas by implementation of small-scale investments supported by a Small Matched Grants Programme (MSGP).

Piloting a New Convention: How GloBallast Pilot Countries Catalyzed Approval of the Ballast Water Convention

[Regional legal agreements and cooperation frameworks*] In anticipation of the new Ballast Water Management Convention, IMO joined forces with the GEF and UNDP to implement the Global Ballast Water Management Programme (GloBallast). The convention is the first IMO instrument where reliance on modern equipment and ballast water treatment technologies is combined with an adequate understanding of the quality and the impact of ballasting operations on coastal waters. Globallast directly contributed to passage of international environmental legislation which is now moving through the process of country ratification and entry into force. The GEF project was instrumental in building awareness, building consensus amongst countries north and south, helping to push the decision making process, and leveraging significant co-financing.

The Dnipro Agreement: Negotiations and Technical Cooperation Surpassing Expectations

[Regional legal agreements and cooperation frameworks*] The concept for the Dnipro Basin Environment Programme (DBEP) was approved in December 1999. The project was established by the three riparian countries to develop a Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) for the Basin and to achieve agreement on a Strategic Action Programme (SAP) for protection and recovery of the river and its tributaries. The DBEP project was implemented during a time of considerable change in the region. In particular, the political and economic relationships between the three former Soviet republics changed dramatically. A decision was reached prior to project launch that the effort should proceed despite there being no legal basis in place for joint development and implementation of a Dnipro Strategic Action Plan. Even without a formal legal basis, the DBEP created and maintained strong country buy-in and ownership. The DBEP experience provides valuable lessons for managing transboundary projects in areas facing political upheaval and shifting alliances.

Development and Endorsement of an International River Basin Management Plan

[Regional legal agreements and cooperation frameworks*] The Tisza River Basin is the largest tributary of the Danube River and includes part of the territory of Ukraine, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Romania and Republic of Serbia. Unfortunately, the region faces threats from pollution (nutrient, organic, hazardous substances) and river engineering as well as from floods and droughts. Taken into account outlined pressure the Tisza River Basin countries have prepared the Integrated River Basin Management Plan (ITRBM Plan), which includes the next steps and long-term actions to reach good status of the water of the Tisza River Basin by 2015. Improving the linkages and integration with planned flood protection measures is needed to ensure that regional and local measures can be implemented with minimal competition between the needs to protect property and lives from flood events with alternative approaches to mitigating peak floods whilst ensuring maximum benefit to the riverine ecosystems.

Building Successful Technological and Financial Partnerships with the Private Sector to Reduce Pollutant Loading

The Danube TEST project was designed and targeted to demonstrate how environmentally sound technologies would not only aid in reducing point-source pollutants but would assist the associated enterprises that adopted them in being more cost-effective and less wasteful. Although there are capacities in Danubian countries to provide many of the services needed by industry to pursue the simultaneous objectives of competitiveness enhancement, social responsibility and environmental compliance, these capacities remain isolated in separate institutions and companies.

Institutional Training and Capacity Building in Support of Private Sector Partnerships

Global Industry Alliance: Partnerships for Change

The overall objective of GloBallast Partnerships is to catalyze global partnerships that will implement coordinated long-term measures to minimize the adverse impacts of aquatic invasive species transferred through ships’ ballast water on coastal and marine ecosystems, economy and human health. Market studies have estimated that the total market for ballast water management technologies may reach $15 billion or more as a result of the requirement of the International Convention on Ballast Water Management adopted in 2004. This suggests that there is ample room for market forces to drive innovation, and that a close partnership with industry is crucial if technological solutions are to be achieved in the near term.

Coastal Management: Using Community Based Projects to Test Locally Appropriate Technologies

The regional project for the Implementation of the Strategic Action Program(SAP) for the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden aims to improve the coastal and marine environments of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The SAP project was executed by the Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and involved the countries of Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

Small Grants Programme (SGP) in the GEF/UNDP Danube Regional Project (DRP)

Among some 80 activities pursued by the UNDP-GEF Danube Regional Project, its Small Grants Programme (SGP) has had a particularly remarkable impact. The SGP was the DRP's main vehicle for engaging local stakeholders and the public through NGO involvement and capacity building for actions at the local level to support the Danube SAP.

International Development of NGOs: Danube Environmental Forum (DEF)

The Danube Environmental Forum (DEF) is a network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which is dedicated to protecting the Danube River and its tributaries, their biodiversity and national resources by enhancing cooperation among governments and stakeholders. Targeting pollution reduction and transboundary cooperation in the same basin, the UNDP-GEF Danube Regional Project (DRP) has worked to build and strengthen the DEF regional NGO network and to establish a Regional Secretariat to coordinate its widespread, multi-country activities and projects. DEF now has a strong Secretariat, 174 member organizations and national focal points from 13 Danube countries.

Participation in a Fisheries Commission and the Adoption of Conservation and Management Measures for Sustainable Use of Transboundary Oceanic Fish Stocks

The OFM project’s two objectives are to improve the understanding of the transboundary oceanic fish resources and related features of the Western and Central Pacific Warm Pool Large Marine Ecosystem (WCPWP-LME) and to create new regional institutional arrangements and reform, realign and strengthen national arrangements for the conservation and management of transboundary oceanic fishery resources. The Convention that established the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission is the first major regional application of the UN Fish Stocks Agreement.

Regional Conference on Parliamentary Environment and Sustainable Use of Marine Resources in the Yellow Sea

Attracting high-level political commitment is an ongoing process that many GEF projects must address during implementation. To use these important roles wisely, a mechanism was required to involve the members of the parliamentary organizations. More than 50 persons from the participating countries of the Yellow Sea Project attended a conference, including 14 members from the parliamentary bodies.

Updating a Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis as Part of Adaptive Management

The GEF Black Sea Ecosystem Recovery Project (BSERP) supports regional aspects of the GEF Strategic Partnership for Nutrient Reduction in the Danube/Black Sea Basin and it assists and strengthens the role of the Black Sea Commission (of the Bucharest Convention for the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution). The BSERP ensures the provision of a suite of harmonised legal and policy instruments for tackling the problems of eutrophication and the release of certain hazardous substances in order to facilitate ecosystem recovery.

Stakeholder Participation and Engagement: Fostering a Community of Interest

DLIST-Benguela is an information sharing programme, comprising an online platform, distance learning courses, and a social networking programme in southwestern Africa. This is a region in a rapid state of transition, with changes in land ownership, socio-economic challenges resulting from dwindling mining, and environmental pressures, in a context of a fragile environment and debilitating poverty. The overall aim of DLIST-Benguela is to increase access of local communities to information that is critical to environmental management and sustainable livelihood creation.

Connecting GEF Projects with a Global Audience: Outreach Initiatives of the South China Sea Project

A large number and wide variety of information and data outputs were produced as part of the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand project (SCS project). This note covers the efforts of the SCS project to build awareness of these outputs via the Internet by: (1) building the online visibility of the SCS project website; and (2) by providing website visitors with an engaging and interactive insight into project interventions and achievements.

CTI GEF IW: LEARN

To advance integrated ecosystem-based management of ocean and coastal areas at global, regional and national levels through coordination of global and regional strategic planning processes, especially in advancing implementation of global commitments for oceans, coasts, and small island developing states (SIDS), and through regional, thematic and portfolio learning and experience-sharing.

Lessons-learned Reporting on Demonstration Site Selection and Design: IWCAM

The overall project sought to include demonstration projects in order to deliver actual achievements in mitigation and resolution of threats and root causes. The agencies developing the project needed to be politically sensitive to the possibility of not all countries running projects and manage the process of criteria-setting in order to ensure that consensus was reached before any demo projects were identified.

Lessons-learned Reporting on Demonstration Site Selection and Design: WIO-Lab

The challenge in this is thus to ensure that relevant technical actors are involved in the design and review process, and that were needed capacity at the national level is attracted from supporting institutions. The process for development and selection of demonstration projects, as applied for the WIOLaB project, applies very much a consultative approach.

Opening Opportunities for Cooperation Frameworks on the Environment Among Lusophone Countries

The workshop, “Seas of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP)” constituted a historic meeting where high-level representatives of the CPLP Member States discussed, for the first time, the sustainable management of oceans; prioritized common major issues on oceans management; and identified avenues for cross-national collaboration to address these issues. The participants drew up an action plan for enhanced cooperation among member states, including the holding of a high-level officials workshop for awareness raising on oceans management in Brazil.

Fostering Transboundary Cooperation Through Regional Dialogue Processes

With 90% of the territory of Southeastern Europe (SEE) countries falling within shared water basins, the effective management of transboundary water bodies is of particular importance for the region. Such a fragmented situation means that international legal frameworks and cooperation arrangements need to be worked out to ensure protection and sustainable use of these transboundary water resource systems. This Note examines whether and how a regional dialogue process can leverage such outcomes.

Lessons-learned Reporting on Stakeholder Involvement: Pantanal and Upper Paraguay

The new Brazilian Water Law placed special emphasis on the implementation of decentralized and participatory management of water resources at the basin level. The approach taken during the early project preparation phase was based on the assumption that the most effective way to actively involve main stakeholders in the project is to involve them directly in the formulation and execution of project activities.

Lessons-learned Reporting on Stakeholder Involvement: WIO-Lab

While this existing political and institutional framework provides a good ground for political embedding of strategy formulation and decision-making, the capacity for stakeholder involvement (technical, financial and human resources) of the dedicated focal point institutions and individual focal persons may in cases be limited; experience with wide stakeholder involvement (or the motivation to assure such) may be limited or even non existent.

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PROCESS INDICATORS

Establishment of country-specific inter-ministerial committees*

[No notes submitted yet]

Regional legal agreements and cooperation frameworks*

	Ballast Water Convention (GloBallast)
	Dnipro Agreement (Dnipro River)
	Endorsement of River Basin Management Plan (Tisza River)
	Fisheries Commission (Pacific Fisheries)

Regional Management Institutions*

[No notes submitted yet]

High-level political commitment to follow up joint actions

	Parliamentary Conference (Yellow Sea)

National/Local reforms* (Regulatory Frameworks)

[No notes submitted yet]

Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis: Agreement on transboundary priorities and root causes*

	Updating a TDA (Black Sea)

NAP development and approval

[No note submitted]

Development of Strategic Action Plan (SAP) *

[No notes submitted yet]

Adoption of a Science advisory panel, data and information sharing or other knowledge sharing agreement

[No notes submitted yet]

Adoption of an M&E Plan

[No notes submitted yet]

Development and tracking of indicators transboundary systems

[No notes submitted yet]

Financing mechanisms for TWM

[No notes submitted yet]

Public/private partnerships in TWM

	Technological and Financial Partnerships (Danube River TEST)
	Institutional Training and Capacity Building in Support of Private Sector Partnerships (Danube River TEST)
	Global Industry Alliance (Ballast Water Partnerships)

Knowledge management database and IT for TWM

	Fostering a community of interest (DLIST BENGUELA)
	Outreach Initiatives, Google Earth (South China Sea)

Other Process Indicators from the GEF IW Tracking Tool include:

Management measures in ABNJ incorporated in Global/Regional Management Organizations (RMI) institutional/ management frameworks
Revised Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA)/Strategic Action Program (SAP) including Climatic Variability and Change considerations
TDA based on multi-national, interdisciplinary technical and scientific (MNITS) activities
Proportion of Countries that have adopted SAP
Proportion of countries that are implementing specific measures from the SAP (i.e. adopted national policies, laws, budgeted plans)
Incorporation of (SAP, etc.) priorities with clear commitments and time frames into CAS, PRSPs, UN Frameworks, UNDAF, key agency strategic documents including financial commitments and time frames, etc

STRESS REDUCTION INDICATORS