12 October 2018: Parties at the eighth Meeting of the Parties (MOP8) to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) welcomed Chad and Senegal as the first countries from outside the Pan-European region to accede to the Convention, and adopted a new global strategy.

The new global strategy has the objectives of increasing: awareness of and political support for the Convention; accession of new Parties; support for implementation of the Convention, transboundary water management, and water-related SDGs; and partnerships with other actors.

During the meeting, more than 15 countries announced their decision or intention to accede to the Convention. These announcements included statements of an intention to accede or on the current process of accession in Jordan, Viet Nam, Togo, Niger, Ghana, the Central African Republic (CAR), Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon, and expressions of interest from Congo and Mongolia.

More than 15 countries announced their decision or intention to accede to the Convention.

MOP8 also addressed substantive issues such as reporting under the Convention and SDG indicator 6.5.2 (proportion of transboundary basin area with an operational arrangement for water cooperation). A decision on this agenda item included agreeing to include reporting under the Convention and on SDG indicator 6.5.2 as one of the programme areas in the future programme of work of the Water Convention for 2019-2021.

Other agenda items included support for implementation and compliance, climate change adaptation in transboundary basins, and a methodology for assessing the water-food-energy-ecosystems nexus. Based on the input of the Task Force on Water and Climate, MOP8: adopted an implementation guide on addressing water-related disasters and transboundary cooperation; recommended that countries, basins, and partners use it in their efforts to reduce water-related disaster risks and when implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and the Water Convention; and decided to include ‘Adapting to Climate Change in Transboundary Basins’ in the 2019-2021 programme of work. The meeting adopted the programme of work for 2019-2021, and approved a budget of US$12.1 million.

MOP8 convened from 10-12 October 2018, in Astana, Kazakhstan, and brought together more than 600 participants from 93 countries, including Parties, non-Party States, representatives of the UN and other governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and academia. [IISD RS Coverage of MOP8]