Transboundary Water Cooperation in the Lower Mekong Basin II - GIZ - 2022

Description of Project: The Technical Cooperation (TC) module Transboundary water cooperation in the Lower Mekong Basin II aims at increasing the relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency of the Mekong River Commission (MRC). To achieve these aims, the TC supports ongoing efforts to strengthen the MRC basin management and monitoring activities. GIZ has commissioned the project for the MRC Core River Monitoring Network (CRMN) to support the TC by strengthening the technical and organizational competences of personnel at MRC in collecting relevant and reliable data on the developments in the Lower Mekong Basin. This project is delivered by Oxford Policy Management (OPM), its consortium partner Mekong Economics (MKE), and the subcontractor UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH), covering the period from October 2022 to November 2024.

Description of actual services provided by your staff within the assignment:

Mekong Economics’ input was to build technical and organisational competencies at MRC for collecting relevant and reliable data on developments in the Lower Mekong Basin. To accomplish this, the team shall draft and implement a capacity development strategy that builds on and feeds into two key processes: the implementation of the above-described redesign of the MRC CRMN and the integration of the Joint Environmental Monitoring (JEM) into the CRMN, using the outcomes of the piloting of the JEM. Some key services to be provided are as follows:

  • Carry out an inception phase including the development of an inception report. 

  • Carry out a national and regional needs assessment on capacity gaps for the successful implementation of a CRMN.

  • Develop a long-term and sustainable CDS for the implementation of the CRMN at the institutional, organizational, and individual level to be implementable at regional, national, and local levels, including at community level.

  • Provide proposals on innovative and/or digital tools for the design and implementation of the CDS and propose state of the art principles and pragmatic approaches for future implementation.

  • Provide clear and detailed approaches and methods to ensure the CDS is gender transformative, targeting promotion of women and diversity in the water sector and builds on the opportunities that can be found when drawing on knowledge of all genders and classes.

  • Ensure that the CDS is adapted to the capacities of local and national practitioners in the field, aiming at improving current capacity gaps and differentiating the needs among MRC Member Countries and within the line agencies and draws on the Leave No one Behind Principle

  • Define and include methods and tools to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the CDS at different levels (regional, national, and local level)

Client: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

Locations: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Vietnam


Mekong Economics