GLOBAL
COALITION
FOR
GOOD
WATER
GOVERNANCE
Launched at the
2016 World Water Week in
Stockholm, Sweden
The OECD Principles on Water Governance
On 4 June 2015, the OECD Principles on Water Governance were endorsed by OECD Ministers as
standards for more effective, efficient and inclusive design and implementation of water policies. The
Principles have been developed and discussed through a bottom-up and multi-stakeholder approach
within the OECD Water Governance Initiative, an international network of 120+ policymakers and
stakeholders gathering twice a year in a Policy Forum.
The Principles aim to enhance water governance systems that help manage “too much”, “too little” and
“too polluted” water in a sustainable, integrated and inclusive way, at an acceptable cost, and in a
reasonable time-frame. They consider that governance is good if it can help to solve key water
challenges, using a combination of bottom-up and top-down processes while fostering constructive
state-society relations. It is bad if it generates undue transaction costs and does not respond to placebased needs.
The Principles were developed on the premise that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to water
challenges worldwide, but a menu of options building on the diversity of legal, administrative and
organisational systems within and across countries. The OECD Principles on Water Governance
recognise that governance is highly contextual, that water policies need to be tailored to different water
resources and places, and that governance responses have to adapt to changing circumstances. They
acknowledge that water governance is a shared responsibility between levels of government, public,
private and non-profit stakeholders.
The OECD Principles on Water Governance provide a framework to understand whether water
governance systems are performing optimally and help to adjust them where necessary. They can
catalyse efforts for making good practices more visible, learning from international experience, and
setting reform processes into motion at all levels of government to facilitate change where and when
needed. They can also help avoid traps and pitfalls, learning from international experience.
OECD Principles on Water Governance
Available in 15 languages
Source: http://www.oecd.org/governance/
oecd-principles-on-water-governance.htm
at http://www.oecd.org/governance/
oecd-principles-on-water-governance.htm
The Global Coalition
The Global Coalition for Good Water Governance aims to trigger collective action towards effective,
efficient and inclusive governance so that water security contributes to growth and well-being. Over
2016-2018, the Coalition will guide public action from policymakers, business and society at large
through the identification, collection and upscaling of innovative solutions that can shape the future of
water.
In practice, the Global Coalition will catalyse through its members hundreds of success stories at
international, national, basin and local levels, and foster related knowledge and experience sharing.
These world class solutions to water governance gaps will be disclosed in a user-friendly OECD
database at the 8th World Water Forum to be held in Brasilia, March 2018.
In addition, the 170+ members of the Global Coalition will also be consulted on the ongoing
development of indicators to support the implementation of the OECD Principles on Water Governance.
Such indicators will help assess, amongst others, whether i) framework conditions are in place to get
water governance right; ii) the progress over time against a baseline ; and iii) the impact of governance
structures on policy outcomes in terms of managing too much, too little and too polluted water and
ensuring universal coverage of water services. The indicators will also contribute to the monitoring of
selected targets of SDG 6, such as 6b on local participation, for instance.
35 OECD MEMBER COUNTRIES
7 NON-MEMBER COUNTRIES
140 STAKEHOLDER GROUPS
OECD Countries
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Chile
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Korea
Latvia
Estonia
Finland
France
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Mexico
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Poland
Turkey
Czech Republic
Portugal
Denmark
Island
Luxemburg
Slovak Republic
United Kingdom United States
Non-Member countries
Brazil
China
Colombia
Morocco
Peru
Romania
South Africa
Stakeholder groups
Join the Global Coalition
Whether you represent an international, national, basin or local stakeholder, from public, private and
non-profit sectors, you can endorse the OECD Principles on Water Governance and join the Global
Coalition for Good Water Governance.
To do so, you are welcomed to print, fill-in, sign and return the endorsement form available at
http://www.oecd.org/gov/regional-policy/OECD-Principles-WG-Endorsement-form.pdf to
[email protected].
For more on OECD work on water governance:
visit www.oecd.org/gov/water
or contact [email protected]