Observations on governance in the Global Environment Facility (GEF) International Waters (IW) Programme

Abstract

The Transboundary Waters Assessment Programme (TWAP) is a GEF project to develop indicators for monitoring all aspects of the projects in its International Waters (IW) portfolio. This discussion paper addresses the monitoring of governance. The focus is on the Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) component of the IW Programme, however, the points raised may be relevant in other IW areas as well. Two key issues are raised with regard to assessment of resource governance initiatives such as the GEF IW projects. The first is that governance can only be evaluated against context specific goals and objectives. The second key issue is the multi-scale, multi-level nature of governance in social-ecological systems (SESs). By complementing the level of effort expended in the natural sciences with a focused effort aimed at the social sciences, the potential for achieving the GEF’s International Waters aim of helping countries work with their neighbors to modify human activities can be significantly enhanced.