Transboundary water management and long-term planning in the Cubango-Okavango River Basin
Partner (s): UNDP and GEF
Type of Organization: Non-governmental organizations
Country of Operation: Angola, Botswana and Namibia
Climate Adaptation Sector Thematic Area: Integrated, Cross- Sectoral, Transboundary and Long-Term Planning Approach
Activities
The Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) was established in 1994 as a ‘cooperation, coordination and information-sharing platform’ to encourage an integrated response to the management of the Basin’s water resources and to mitigate, as far as possible, current and future activities and extraction practices that are determinantal to the basin as a whole.
OKACOM has achieved over 25 years of sustained cooperation between the three countries which share the basins’ resources, namely Angola, Botswana and Namibia. It is considered a successful model of transboundary natural resource management in the Southern African region. Much of its success is due to the recognition and importance it has placed on developing a strong regulatory and scientific framework that encourages cooperation and basin- wide management and inform its long-term planning, in an equitable way.
In response to building pressure to develop the Cubango-Okavango River Basin resources to increase economic benefits and alleviate poverty in the basin population, the Basin authorities undertook a Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) to provide technical transboundary information for basin-wide planning. This assessment was conducted in Angola, Botswana and Namibia – the three countries which share the resources of the basin – with support from the UNDP and GEF.
Following the TDA, a set of transboundary priorities were approved by the respective Cabinet in all three states and jointly endorsed as the Strategic Action Programme (SAP). OKACOM’s Strategic Action Programme (SAP), developed in 2010 and to be implemented over a 20-year period, is a joint Strategy that lays down the principles and strategic direction for the development of the Basin. It seeks to avoid the loss of ecosystem services and wetland functioning by curbing unregulated upstream developments and managing unsustainable changes in land and water use. These tools and policies help OKACOM assess the environmental and socio-economic threats to the Basin, focusing on the relationship between current and future water use and hydrological flow, and identifying thresholds and the scope of ‘acceptable development space’. This project supports the implementation of the SAP through strengthening the joint management and cooperative decision-making capacity of the basin states on the optimal utilization of resources in the basin, aiming to simultaneously support the socio-economic development of the basin communities and sustain the health of the basin ecosystems.
Further information
Links to resources and resources 2 contact details.