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Marloes Bakker Utrecht [email protected] The Netherlands
UNECE 2nd Workshop on Transboundary Flood Management 20 March 2015 | Session 4
Improving international flood risk governance:
exploring opportunities & barriers
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Open minds. Open doors.TM
Nothing is more flexible, more yielding or softer than water, yet when it attacks, none can withstand it.
Lao Tzu, 6th century BC
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Topics
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•What is needed at an institutional level to enable international cooperation?
•What are the key elements?
•What challenges need to be overcome?
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RIVER + DIKE = POLITICAL ORDER
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Flood resilient regions: a governance challenge, especially at
the transboundary scale
More info at www.starflood.eu
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Challenges identified in literature
• Need for collaborative, participatory and interactive approaches
• Bridging: shared sense of urgency– Actors– Levels– Domains
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What is needed at an institutional level to enable international cooperation?
• Two sides: technical & political• Start cooperation at technical level: build trust
• Reduce notions of risk = strengthen political support (Subramanian et al. 2014):– Capacity and knowledge– Accountability and voice– Sovereignty and autonomy– Equity and access– Stability and support
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Key elements of international cooperation
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“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the
one most responsive to change.”
– Commonly attributed to Charles Darwin
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What make a good water institution?Millington, 2002
• Institutional framework– Robust, flexible, modern legislation, integrated
policy framework• Planning + management = knowledge driven
– Not only data management• Ecosystem approach• Community participation
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What make a good water institution?Delli Priscoli, 2013
• High political commitment• Establish means for resolving disputes• Promote flexibility• Open + transparent rules • Separate administration + policy• Foster regional shared visions
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But what about climate change?
… how to integrate fuzzy information into management, agreements, treaties and institutions?
• Effective international framework (UN)• Expand scope of existing agreements/institutions• Evaluate existing treaties/institutions• Improve flexibility of existing institutions• Establish joint monitoring programs• Conduct assessments
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Even more challenges to overcome?
• Again, see UNECE workshop report 2009!
• Difference in perception of problems• Learn (even more) from each other• Distributional effects• “Operational governance”
– Process agreements at national level– Cooperation at the operational level
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Final thoughts
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Institutional embedding of transboundary flood risk management strategies through governance arrangements is of crucial importance for their success
Improved management of transboundary flood risk is a matter of urgency
Improving the governance institutions for international river basins is a no-regret strategy
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- Aaron Wolf, 2008
“Water ignores all separations and boundaries save for those of the watershed
itself. As such it offers a vehicle to bring those who share it together. Since it
touches all we do and experience, water creates a language through which we may
discuss our common future.”