The Mekong Programme
The Mekong Programme is a Regional Cooperation Programme for the Sustainable Development of Water and Related Resources in the Mekong River Basin, which puts into practice the 1995 Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin. It is a country-owned partnership programme implemented by Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam, in conjunction with donors, development banks and the private sector. China and Myanmar are Dialogue Partners.
The Mekong Programme’s vision is to make optimum use of the basin’s water and related resources to promote socio-economic development for the benefit of all people in the basin, especially the poorest – such as the fishing communities of the floodplains and farmers in dry regions and in the Delta – while maintaining the ecological balance and contributing to the UN Millennium Development Goals. Using the principles of Integrated Water Resources Management, the Mekong Programme is seeking to promote balanced and well-coordinated activities in all water resources sectors, but principally in the areas of irrigation and drought management, hydropower, navigation, flood management, fisheries, watershed management, environment management and tourism as specified in Article 1 of the 1995 Agreement.
The Mekong Programme is coordinated and supported by the Mekong River Commission (MRC), a knowledgebased river basin organisation created in 1995, which provides the institutional framework for this cooperation and regional integration. MRC supports member countries and investment partners through technical assistance, integrated development planning, knowledge and expertise that focuses on basinwide needs and employs the recognised triple bottom line procedure of duly considering, and giving equal weight to, economic growth, environmental impacts and social and cultural outcomes.
The Mekong Programme works in close relationship and is complementary to regional initiatives such as the Greater Mekong Sub-region Programme supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB); the Association of South East Asian Nations Mekong Basin Development Cooperation Framework and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. It offers a cooperation platform for bilateral development programmes in the water sector and for regional initiatives such as the Mekong Water Resources Partnership Programme promoted by the World Bank and the ADB, and the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy, which involves the MRC’s four member countries and Myanmar.
The Mekong Programme also works in partnerships with such organisations as the World Conservation Union, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Wide Fund for Nature, as well as civil society and academic institutions