Towards a new paradigm for transboundary water governance: implementing regional frameworks through local actions

Large-scale international waters management projects usually focus on fostering formal inter-governmental cooperation processes, which often lead to limited on-the-ground impact. In contrast, community-based international waters projects are often local, individualistic and stand-alone projects, lacking regional linkages and perspectives. Consequently a gap exists between regional and local processes and their outcomes. Linking regional processes with local actions not only enhances the effectiveness of local actions in addressing international waters issues but also strengthens regional frameworks. The paper calls for adopting an integrated management approach to international waters management by incorporating local actions into regional international waters management frameworks.This article draws experiences and lessons learnt from the partnership between the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP) and the SCS project in the integration of regional and local actions. In particular, it evaluates the experiences derived from thirty one small grant projects at the community level that were specifically designed to address priority issues identified in the regional SCS/SAP and outlines the process used for their identification and selection. The paper highlights the critical importance of engaging local communities in regional environmental governance and presents the outcomes in terms of the extent to which these small local actions have contributed towards regionally-defined goals and targets. The paper advocates a paradigm shift on the part of international donors such as the GEF from focussing either on regional intergovernmental cooperation or on community actions at the local level to an approach that fosters the development of regional frameworks of action within which local actions can be identified and supported. The positive experiences of the SCS and SGP partnership suggest that this is a suitable model for replication in other shared water bodies.

► Failure to link local communities and regional programmes forms a management dilemma.
► A mechanism for engaging local communities in achieving regional targets is outlined.
► 31 small grant contributions to regional targets in the South China Sea, documented.
► Small scale activities are found to contribute significantly to regional targets.
► A new paradigm of “polycentric” transboundary water governance is proposed.