GLOBAL

COALITION

FOR

GOOD

WATER

GOVERNANCE

Launched at the

2016 World Water Week in

Stockholm, Sweden

Target 1

By 2015, 50% of countries will have adopted consultation, participation and co-ordination

mechanism allowing stakeholders at local, regional, national and international levels to

effectively contribute to decision-making in a coherent, holistic and integrated way. By

2021, 100% will have done so.

Target 2

By 2015, 50% countries will have strengthened regulatory frameworks and adopted

performance indicators (service delivery) to monitor and evaluate water policies; and all

countries will have put in place capacity-building processes at national and local level to

foster good governance in service delivery. By 2018, all countries will have done so.

Target 3

By 2021, increase by 30% the number of river basin management plans (analysis of initial

status and main issues).

Target 4

By 2015, increase the number of countries with water security diagnoses and governance

tools, based on existing (local, national, international) regulatory and legislative

frameworks and IWRM mechanisms.

Target 5

By 2018, 30 countries will have committed to promote integrity in the water sector,

diagnose/map existing or potential corruption risks, and ensure that anti-corruption policies

are well implemented and effective.

Target 6

By 2018, 30 countries will be implementing: transparent water budget processes, including

information about water infrastructure investment planning and implementation (financial,

technical, and socioeconomic impacts); and methods and tools for improving transparency

and accountability within the water sector.

The OECD Principles on Water Governance

On 4 June 2015, the OECD Principles on Water Governance were endorsed by OECD Ministers as

standards for more effective, efficient and inclusive design and implementation of water policies. The

Principles have been developed and discussed through a bottom-up and multi-stakeholder approach

within the OECD Water Governance Initiative, an international network of 120+ policymakers and

stakeholders gathering twice a year in a Policy Forum.

The Principles aim to enhance water governance systems that help manage “too much”, “too little” and

“too polluted” water in a sustainable, integrated and inclusive way, at an acceptable cost, and in a

reasonable time-frame. They consider that governance is good if it can help to solve key water

challenges, using a combination of bottom-up and top-down processes while fostering constructive

state-society relations. It is bad if it generates undue transaction costs and does not respond to place-

based needs.

The Principles were developed on the premise that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to water

challenges worldwide, but a menu of options building on the diversity of legal, administrative and

organisational systems within and across countries. The OECD Principles on Water Governance

recognise that governance is highly contextual, that water policies need to be tailored to different water

resources and places, and that governance responses have to adapt to changing circumstances. They

acknowledge that water governance is a shared responsibility between levels of government, public,

private and non-profit stakeholders.

The OECD Principles on Water Governance provide a framework to understand whether water

governance systems are performing optimally and help to adjust them where necessary. They can

catalyse efforts for making good practices more visible, learning from international experience, and

setting reform processes into motion at all levels of government to facilitate change where and when

needed. They can also help avoid traps and pitfalls, learning from international experience.

OECD Principles on Water Governance Source: http://www.oecd.org/governance/

oecd-principles-on-water-governance.htm

Available in 15 languages at http://www.oecd.org/governance/

oecd-principles-on-water-governance.htm

The Global Coalition

35 OECD MEMBER COUNTRIES

7 NON-MEMBER COUNTRIES

140 STAKEHOLDER GROUPS

The Global Coalition for Good Water Governance aims to trigger collective action towards effective,

efficient and inclusive governance so that water security contributes to growth and well-being. Over

2016-2018, the Coalition will guide public action from policymakers, business and society at large

through the identification, collection and upscaling of innovative solutions that can shape the future of

water.

In practice, the Global Coalition will catalyse through its members hundreds of success stories at

international, national, basin and local levels, and foster related knowledge and experience sharing.

These world class solutions to water governance gaps will be disclosed in a user-friendly OECD

database at the 8th World Water Forum to be held in Brasilia, March 2018.

In addition, the 170+ members of the Global Coalition will also be consulted on the ongoing

development of indicators to support the implementation of the OECD Principles on Water Governance.

Such indicators will help assess, amongst others, whether i) framework conditions are in place to get

water governance right; ii) the progress over time against a baseline ; and iii) the impact of governance

structures on policy outcomes in terms of managing too much, too little and too polluted water and

ensuring universal coverage of water services. The indicators will also contribute to the monitoring of

selected targets of SDG 6, such as 6b on local participation, for instance.

OECD Countries

Non-Member countries

Australia Austria Belgium Canada Chile Czech Republic Denmark

Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Island

Ireland Israel Italy Japan Korea Latvia Luxemburg

Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Poland Portugal Slovak Republic

Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey United Kingdom United States

Brazil China Colombia Morocco Peru Romania South Africa

Stakeholder groups

Join the Global Coalition

Whether you represent an international, national, basin or local stakeholder, from public, private and

non-profit sectors, you can endorse the OECD Principles on Water Governance and join the Global

Coalition for Good Water Governance.

To do so, you are welcomed to print, fill-in, sign and return the endorsement form available at

http://www.oecd.org/gov/regional-policy/OECD-Principles-WG-Endorsement-form.pdf to

water.governance@oecd.org.

For more on OECD work on water governance:

visit www.oecd.org/gov/water

or contact water.governance@oecd.org