From 17 to 19 November, the Seventh session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes took place in Budapest, Hungary.

The meeting was convened by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which acts as the Convention’s Secretariat.

UNEP took part in discussions on the Convention’s contribution to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, cooperation with partners and the monitoring and future assessment of the status of transboundary waters.

A high-level segment at the meeting addressed the Convention’s role in relation to the 2030 Agenda and other global commitments, while the water-food-energy-ecosystems nexus and future cooperation with partners was also discussed.

Parties furthermore reviewed activities undertaken so far and adopted a new programme of work for 2016-2018. One major topic was accession to the convention by non-UNECE countries, which is soon to be made possible. Parties currently only include European countries and some North American and Asian ones, but a host of new states could soon sign up.

UNEP was also present at several side events, including on climate change adaptation and flood risk management in transboundary basins. Reference was made to UNEP’s long-standing work on water-related issues in cooperation with various partners, including UNECE.

Cooperation is now envisaged between the Convention and UNEP in the latter’s areas of expertise, such as ecosystems and capacity-development projects.

For more information on the Transboundary Waters Assessment Programme, which was initiated by GEF and led by UNEP, please click here.

For further details please contact barbara.ruis@unep.org