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the 2020 monItorIng eXercIse And the role oF custodIAn AgencIes...............7
from Global status on transboundary cooperation and acceleration needs to achieve SDG6 target 5 by 2030
Figure 1. Transboundary river and lake basins, transboundary aquifers and international borders
There is also a risk that, in the absence of cooperation, unilateral measures adopted by countries to tackle the COVID-19 crisis – and the subsequent recovery – may increase pressures, tensions and disputes over transboundary waters. This is why the international community has increasingly called upon countries to adopt arrangements for transboundary water cooperation,2 and why the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) incorporated an indicator that monitors progress on the coverage of operational arrangements for transboundary waters into the SDG indicator framework. Countries have an opportunity to introduce postCOVID-19 recovery packages that recognize the value of investing in transboundary water cooperation as a means to “build back better”3 and that drive regional sustainable development, enhance resilience to climate change, tackle ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss, and promote peace and security. Past experience clearly demonstrates how operational arrangements for transboundary water cooperation that focus on nature-based solutions can deliver many benefits and curb several global challenges (see Figure 2 for indicative examples).
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2 For instance, the High-Level Panel on Water and Peace, the High-level Panel on Water, and Resolution 17 of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Water Congress 2020 all call for States to join the two global water conventions (1997 Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses (1997 Watercourses Convention) and the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (1992 Water Convention), and urge countries to adopt legal and institutional frameworks for their transboundary waters (see https://www. unwater.org/report-global-high-level-panel-water-peace/; https://www.unwater.org/high-level-panel-on-water-outcomedocument/ and https://www.iucncongress2020.org/motion/017). See also UN-Water (2021). The United Nations Global Water Conventions: fostering sustainable development and peace. United Nations. Available at https://www.unwater.org/publications/ the-united-nations-global-water-conventions-fostering-sustainable-development-and-peace/. 3 In his message on International Mother Earth Day, the United Nations Secretary-General stressed that “the current crisis is an unprecedented wake-up call. We need to turn the recovery into a real opportunity to do things right for the future” (UN News, 2020).
