International Waters learning Exchange & Resource Network

Project Structure

This page contains information about GEF IW:LEARN's partners, as well as its implementation structure and overall management arrangements. IW:LEARN Project Coordination Unit (PCU) spans roughly 20 international agencies and organizations across four continents.

Implementation Structure

Principal Funder

Implementing Agencies

Executing Agencies

Steering Committee

The Project Steering Committee formally supervises all activities undertaken through the PCU, providing strategic direction, guidance and assessment to maximize the project’s execution progress, relevance and impact on its beneficiaries.

IW:LEARN's Steering Committee includes:

  • Global Environment Facility
  • UN Development Programme
  • UN Environment Programme
  • The World Bank
  • International Fund for Agricultural Development
  • UN Office for Project Services
  • UNESCO International Hydrological Programme
  • UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health
  • International Union for the Conservation of Nature
  • Global Water Partnership Mediterranean
  • 1 TAG nominated representative project manager (see below)

Stakeholder Involvement

Since the early GEF International Waters Conferences (starting in 2000), substantial consultation with representatives from GEF IW projects and their partners (e.g., global, regional, national and local agencies, NGOs, etc.) informed design of this project. Continued consultation via electronic forums, one-on-one interviews and regional and global IW learning exchanges will ensure that stakeholder interests are regularly recorded, reviewed and systematically addressed by the project and its regional, thematic and institutional partners. Given the number of recent GEF IW project briefs and documents that explicitly identify planned cooperation with IW:LEARN, the project expects to establish more formal agreements to further incorporate stakeholder involvement through these partnerships.

To optimise GEF IW project stakeholder involvement, all IW:LEARN activities are aligned with a stakeholder involvement plan and outreach and dissemination strategy. These include five objectives based on lessons learned from the experimental phase:

  1. Enhance ownership of and buy-in to IW:LEARN through participatory project development and implementation
  2. Raise awareness about the role of IW:LEARN, GEF IW Portfolio and IW management in sustainable development (e.g., achieving Millennium Development Goals, Johannesburg and World Water Forum objectives, etc.)
  3. Provide customized service through personal relations with key personnel at projects, partners and service providers.
  4. Develop effective delivery mechanisms which leverage the use of appropriate tools for ICT-mediated dissemination to, for and through GEF IW projects and their partners.
  5. Assist in replication of useful GEF IW experiences, innovations, lessons, opportunities and tools across the GEF IW portfolio