The Virtual Workshop on financing transboundary water cooperation and basin development took place via an online platform on 16 and 17 December 2020. It discussed challenges and opportunities related to the financing of transboundary water cooperation and basin development. More specifically, the workshop aimed to:

1. Provide a platform and facilitate mutual learning to discuss experiences and good practices in mobilizing financial resources for basin cooperation and transboundary water management and development activities;
2. Analyze the role of the private sector and innovative financial mechanisms in investing in water-related activities at the transboundary level;
3. Provide a platform for International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and other banks and investors to share information on their functioning and the requirements for countries and RBOs to access their financing. 

The discussions of the workshop were based on the findings and information compiled in the background study on financing transboundary water cooperation and basin development, which was made available to the participants in English, French, Russian and Spanish before the workshop in the table below.

The key issues discussed included:

• Funding needs for transboundary water cooperation and basin development;
• Funding sources (public, private) and their specific nature, characteristics, operational details and requirements;
• Challenges related to accessing these different funding resources and lessons learned for overcoming them.

A high-level opening and closing sessions welcomed:
Ms. Olga Algayerova, Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE); Mr. Thierno Hamet Baba LY, Secretary General, Ministry of Water and Sanitation, Senegal; Mr. Simon Zbinden, Head, Global Water Programme, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); Mr. Tom Panella, Director, Environment, Natural Resources, Agriculture Division, East Asia Department, Asian Development Bank (ADB); Mr. Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, CEO and Chairperson, Global Environment Facility (GEF); Ms. Jennifer Sara, Global Director, World Bank Group's Water Global Practice; Mr. Henk Ovink, Special Envoy for International Water Affairs for the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The workshop was addressed to representatives from countries with shared watercourses (from ministries of water, environment, foreign affairs and finance); RBOs and joint bodies; international financial institutions (IFIs) and multilateral development banks (MDBs); international and bilateral climate finance mechanisms; the private sector (including companies, private banks, investment banks, pension funds etc); UN entities working on financing.

The virtual workshop was co-organized with the African Development Bank (AfDB); the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Global Environment Facility (GEF); the Global Environment Facility International Waters Learning Exchange and Resources Network (GEF IW:LEARN), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); the Netherlands (Ministry of  Infrastructure and Water Management), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); Senegal (Ministry of Water and Sanitation); Switzerland (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation), the United Nations Capital Development Funds (UNCDF); the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the World Bank.

For more information on the outcomes of the workshop, please click here.