The Global International Waters Assessment is a partnership project. It will be implemented in collaboration between the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Kalmar University, and a wide range of partners within the international water community.

The anticipated work period is four years, starting in July 1999. Resources have, so far (October 1999), been committed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), UNEP, Sida, Finland, the City of Kalmar, Kalmar University, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The work will be carried out in different teams and at different geographical levels - see GIWA work structure and organization.

In the making of the Global International Waters Assessment, full use will be made of existing assessments and all other available information about the 66 subregions. Only data required for a step-by-step, iterative analysis of transboundary water-related problems and their causes will be gathered. The findings of past water-related programmes will be incorporated in GIWA, and the assessment work will be carried out in close partnership with ongoing programmes to maximize the overall benefit. Duplication of work will be avoided.

GIWA will depend on access to data and other information from a network of stakeholders in the water sphere, but will in turn provide scientific and other information that may be used by other international, regional and global bodies and activities in the field of international waters.

The GIWA causal chain analyses will cluster into five major problem areas of concern, initially divided into 23 issues.

The network established to accomplish the work of GIWA will consist of national experts and institutions, regional and global collaborating bodies organized around the geographic units of assessment and grouped into nine major regions. The work will be divided into well defined phases and the output will be specific products from each phase.

The initial phase will include the establishment of the GIWA Core Team, as well as a global network of collaborating institutions/ organizations and individuals in governmental and non-governmental organizations within the public and private sectors, as well as in the scientific community. During this first phase, the GIWA Assessment Protocol will also be developed, including an approved methodology for making causal chain analyses.

During the following analytical phase, information will be gathered and analyzed. After that, there will be a predictive/policy options analysis phase dedicated to scenario development and policy options analyses and evaluation.

The final phase will comprise preparation and dissemination of the GIWA products, including an illustrated Global International Waters Assessment. Emphasis will be placed on the preparation of reviews that are easily comprehensible to various sectors of society. It is essential that the Global International Waters Assessment does not remain a desk exercise but is made available to the public in general, to educational institutions and to national and regional authorities.