From the examination of recent studies and discussion among key partners of Key Result Area 4 on Monitoring of Investment and Results, it was agreed to focus the initial efforts of KRA4 on preparing for strong regional cooperation of APWF through building on important decisions expected at the first Asia-Pacific Water Summit (APWS). For this very reason and the current weak systems of monitoring in most developing countries, it is intended to limit the scope of this KRA to identifying areas of improvement for more effective policy making on the basis of monitoring. On the basis of possible areas of improvement, it is expected that KRA4 would be able to identify policy options on the monitoring mechanisms together with supporting activities to be carried out at the regional level to be recommended to APWS for decision in order to ensure successful implementation of the selected options at the national level.
In terms of existing mechanisms for monitoring of investment, it was found that the linkage between existing national water apex bodies and monitoring of investment of the entire water sector is either weak or completely non-existing. This fact led to the weakening of the policy-making and strategy-adoption role of these apex bodies. It is important to point out that in most of the existing apex bodies, there is no permanent mechanisms for even monitoring of results of the entire sector. Instead, monitoring of results of the entire was usually carried out on special occasions, but not regularly, when policy formation is necessary.
Regarding monitoring of investment and results for sectoral development, it was found that the monitoring mechanism of investment and results appeared to be well developed for the water supply sector, such as in the case of Malaysia and Singapore. For irrigated agriculture, the situation is weaker, probably due to the lack of internationally accepted development targets such as those in water supply and sanitation under MDGs. For hydropower development, the monitoring of investment and results tends to be more project-oriented rather than integrated water resources management, although there are several recent and ongoing efforts in several countries at the basin level, such as in the case of Nam Ngum in the Lao PDR. From these sectoral reviews, it is considered important to study policy options for monitoring improvement on the strength and good practices of these sectoral efforts so as to build more systematic programmes on monitoring of investment and results for integrated water resources management.
There is an increasing interest by international organizations, especially international financing institutions, in strengthening national mechanisms for monitoring of investment and results. It was recognized that regional efforts on strengthening of national mechanisms would enhance synergy and facilitate regional exchange of national experiences. For this reason, the interested international organizations and financing institutions considered essential to link initiatives on strengthening of national mechanisms for monitoring of investment and results to ongoing regional efforts on improvement of water resources management. In this context, several organizations expressed their readiness in providing support for regional initiatives on this subject. These organizations also considered important to link these initiatives to the process of strengthening regional cooperation of APWF through better servicing the regular meetings of APWF senior officials and especially the currently proposed arrangement of regular Asia-Pacific Water Summit.
Through consultation with key partners and the APWF Secretariat, it was considered beneficial to the process of cooperation among APWF members to link findings of monitoring of investment and results to regular meetings of senior officials of APWF so as to sharpen focuses for future APWSs. The consultation identified the structure of meetings of the Greater Mekong Subregion programme of ADB, in which the regular GMS Summit is supported by annual ministerial meetings and senior official meetings.
Asia Pacific Water Forum
