The BRIDGE initiative and the Mediterranean Alliance for Wetlands empower Mediterranean communities to shape fair water governance, fostering equity, cooperation, and sustainable river and wetland management.
Launched in 2011, the Building River Dialogue and Governance (BRIDGE) initiative aims to build water governance capacities through learning, demonstration, leadership, and consensus-building, in transboundary river basins. Financed by the Water Diplomacy Programme of the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), IUCN, with partners, have over the past decade implemented transboundary river governance and dialogue through BRIDGE initiative in over twenty river and lake basins worldwide. The 5th phase of BRIDGE (2022 – 2026) is consolidating the knowledge and expertise generated to mobilise key ongoing negotiation processes where IUCN acts as a dialogue broker to foster multi-scale transboundary agreements and strengthen institutions.
In over a decade of implementation, BRIDGE has built on previous successes, challenges and lessons learned, working at multiple levels – local, basin, national, regional and global – to support all water users, through effective institutions, and enable sustainable management of water resources, contributing to long-term security and blue peace.
The networks and collaborations established, from River and Lake Basin Organizations, Water User Associations, local authorities and municipalities, national authorities, regional economic commissions and international actors have been crucial for its success.
