IWMI Launches Water Governance Accelerator to Help Countries Manage Shared Water Resources

A new technical advisory service for governments, river basin organizations and regional bodies aims to turn water governance challenges into workable solutions for long-term water security.

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has launched the Water Governance Accelerator, a technical advisory service designed to help countries and river basin organizations strengthen how water is managed across borders, regions and local communities. The Accelerator was unveiled at the Fourth High-Level International Conference on the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development,” held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, from May 25–28.

A Widening Gap Between Water Commitments and Implementation

Water governance has become one of the most pressing yet underappreciated challenges in global sustainable development. As much as two-thirds of the world’s freshwater flows across national borders, meaning effective management increasingly depends on cooperation between countries rather than unilateral action. Yet demand for water is rising faster than institutions can coordinate, leaving a widening gap between global ambition and local reality.

That gap is reflected in the data. Global implementation of integrated water resources management currently stands at just 57%, and progress has been slow enough that, on current trends, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal target 6.5.1 — which calls for effective transboundary water cooperation — will be missed by decades. Water decisions around the world continue to be made in silos, with fragmented implementation compounded further by mounting climate stress on water systems.

The scale of the governance deficit is stark. In many middle- and low-income countries, groundwater resources remain largely unmonitored, concession registries are outdated, and the majority of agricultural water abstractions fall outside any formal accounting system. Hydrometric networks meant to track water flows have degraded in many regions, and data remains siloed across agencies rather than shared. Perhaps most tellingly, only 24 of 153 countries with transboundary water basins currently have fully operational cooperative arrangements covering all of their shared waters.

It was against this backdrop that IWMI developed the Water Governance Accelerator, aiming to support faster and more coordinated progress at a moment when the Dushanbe conference itself was seeking to mobilize renewed international cooperation on water.

Closing the Gap Between Commitments and Action

“Our water future depends on governance and not just resources,” said Mark Smith, IWMI’s director general. “As climate change intensifies pressure on water systems and demand continues to rise, the stakes have never been higher. IWMI created the Water Governance Accelerator in support of closing the gap between international commitments and implementation on the ground.”

Juan Carlos Sanchez Ramirez, IWMI’s Research Group Leader for Water Governance and Political Economy and Team Leader of the Water Governance Accelerator, emphasized that effective water governance operates across multiple interconnected levels simultaneously. “Water governance is not one static point in space,” he said. “It is the interaction between municipalities setting tariffs, ministries writing laws, river basin organizations implementing agreements and regional bodies coordinating policy. The Water Governance Accelerator works at every one of these scales and connects them.”

A Four-Stage Approach to Governance Reform

The Water Governance Accelerator follows an agile, four-stage service cycle designed to convert governance challenges into sustained solutions. It begins with a diagnostic phase to pinpoint where governance structures are failing, followed by a co-design phase in which governments and partners jointly shape tailored, multi-year response plans from the outset.

The delivery phase embeds technical teams directly within ministries and river basin organizations, implementing solutions collaboratively with support from legal, digital and technical expertise alongside data and evidence. Finally, the sustain phase focuses on strengthening long-term institutional capacity and providing ongoing advisory support to ensure the reforms produce lasting impact rather than short-term fixes.

A Model Already in Action: Central Asia’s Aral Sea System

One demonstrable example of this approach in practice is the Blue Peace Central Asia (BPCA) project in the Aral Sea System, where IWMI leads a regional initiative spanning Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The project has moved regional water governance from initial design into active hydro-diplomacy, engaging in dialogue facilitated through the International Centre for Water Cooperation, interstate commissions, and ministerial-level discussions, while translating high-level cooperation into practical, basin-level action through pilot initiatives such as work on the Isfara River.

BPCA is also investing in the next generation of regional expertise, supporting a Master’s programme in hydro-diplomacy, scientific consultations, and initiatives promoting youth and women’s leadership within the Central Asian water sector — building institutional capacity that can outlast any single project cycle.

Four Decades of Water Governance Experience

The launch builds on more than 40 years of IWMI’s work across over 50 countries, during which the organization has partnered with ministries, river basin organizations and local communities to translate water research and innovation into practical, on-the-ground solutions. The Accelerator draws on IWMI’s multidisciplinary teams — including scientists, economists, lawyers, engineers, basin planners and gender specialists — bringing together this breadth of expertise to support more resilient and inclusive water governance systems worldwide.

With water scarcity and transboundary tension expected to intensify as climate change accelerates, the Water Governance Accelerator represents an effort to ensure that international commitments on water cooperation translate into functioning institutions and coordinated action at the national and local levels.

Governments, river basin organizations and regional bodies interested in exploring how the Water Governance Accelerator can support their work can contact IWMI at iwmi-wga@cgiar.org.

Source: International Water Management Institute (IWMI).