New OECD report: ‘Water Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean: a Multi-level Approach’

The OECD report Water Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean : a Multi-level Approach will be officially launched at the Annual Conference of Ibero-American Water Directors, which will be held at Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, on 21 November, 2012.

The report highlights the need to design more integrated water policies and governance mechanisms that are context-specific, flexible and beneficial to the poor. Based on an extensive survey across 13 LAC countries, it provides an institutional mapping of the allocation of roles and responsibilities in water policy. Then, it identifies 7 governance gaps related to the mismatch between administrative and hydrological boundaries, lack of capacity at sub-national level, information asymmetry, diverging objectives between policy areas, under-financing, sectoral fragmentation across
ministries and public agencies, and poor accountability.

The report also highlights good practices for vertical and horizontal coordination of water policy, and suggests guidelines to better manage interdependencies across public actors within and outside the water box.

Countries covered include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru.