Danube Basin
Issues
Sectors
ICPDR
Dear Readers
For as long as I have worked at the Global Environment Facility (GEF), 13 years now, there has been a
GEF/UNDP Danube Basin project. Over the years, the
thousands of people who have made it such a success
have much to be proud of. Now that the project has
ended, GEF and our other transboundary water projects
in 133 countries need you more than ever!
From the start, GEF recognised the importance of project-to-project exchanges as a learning tool. Country officials and staff working on newer or less successful projects can learn from those who have overcome similar barriers and succeeded. We have asked ICPDR officials to help us in the past with this capacity building strategy and we need you more than ever to help us in all facets of operations: from how to run a secretariat and encourage national inter-ministry committees to practical approaches for everything from engaging civil society to harmonising data.
Towards this goal, the GEF Secretariat established a series of face-to-face biennial portfolio conferences to encourage dialogue and interaction. Fittingly, that First GEF Biennial International Waters Conference in 2000 was co-hosted by the ICPDR in Budapest. We recently held the Fourth Biennial Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, with 300 people participating from 67 GEF international waters projects. Representatives from the ICPDR – Lucia Ana Varga, 2007 ICPDR President, past President Fritz Holzwarth, and Philip Weller – shared their practical experiences with other country officials (see article on page 14). We are grateful for their positive participation, but this is not enough!
We hope that we can send staff from other projects at GEF expense to work for short periods with the ICPDR. We hope that Danube country officials will travel to global meetings with some GEF assistance to share your success stories, especially on the difficult issue of nutrient pollution. We want to involve NGOs and the business community to tell their story of participation in Danube activities.
While GEF funding must now shift to developing countries, please don’t forget the GEF – and be assured that we won’t forget you!
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