Water Funds

Often, ongoing water management does not meet the full watershed management objectives. Reasons can be: water policy implementation does not have sufficient means to cover the full watershed management costs, or watershed stakeholders are not working together in the direction of sustainable watershed management. A Water fund may help. A Water Fund is an institution to enable stakeholders to come together and understand the importance of investment in the protection of a watershed in order to sustain valuable ecosystem services, for example: water provision and purification.

The issue:

The creation of a water fund is a careful, complex and multidimensional process. In the process, clear and transparent information and communications exchange between all public, private and civil society stakeholders is key to generate joint engagement. Stakeholders work towards the creation of a joint vision and objectives for the Water fund. The vision brings together the aspirations of the different stakeholder groups for the watershed in question. Underpinning the process with scientific data and information on the watershed, the relevant ecosystem services, management costs and their derived social and economic benefits, is imperative. And, to create a functioning water fund, stakeholders need to define country-specific legal, institutional, financial and governance modalities, as well as the operational and communications structure of the fund.

How we work:

GSI has a strong track record in the creation and support of water funds. We help our customers to effectively establish functioning Water Funds. In doing so, we bring our technical expertise on watersheds, ecosystem services and economic valuation together with our skills in managing multistakeholder platforms, as well as our legal, institutional, financial knowledge and fundraising skills from various countries around the globe.

Example projects: