About the meeting

The Indus Basin Initiative – as the secretariat for the Upper Indus Basin Network (UIBN) – is organising the Regional Strategic Committee (RSC) meeting on 01 November 2022. In the last RSC meeting of the UIBN in February 2022, the members decided to convene the next RSC meeting in August/September 2022. As per the governance framework of the UIBN, the RSC meets biannually to discuss the country chapters progress, priorities, challenges, and opportunities and explore avenues of regional cooperation.

The RSC aims to align the strategic direction of the network with changing needs and priorities to make the network fit for purpose. The key purpose of the network is to promote science-based regional cooperation and collaboration among and between the riparian countries.

Objectives

• Share experiences and progress of the UIBN country chapters
• Identify avenues for regional collaboration related to science and policy interventions for the country chapters
• Suggest measures to strengthen and sustain the UIBN to support the process of regional cooperation for sustainable management of the Upper Indus Basin (UIB)

Background

The Upper Indus Basin shared by Afghanistan, China, India, and Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable areas to climate change impacts considering the large downstream dependence on the upstream for water resources.

The UIBN was established in 2014 and expanded in 2018 to all the riparian countries by key stakeholders from these countries. UIBN is a voluntary and neutral knowledge and research network which aims to foster coordination among the stakeholders in research related to climate, cryosphere, water, hazards and vulnerability, and adaptation. It plays an important role in bringing together representatives of relevant government and non-government organizations, academia and policy makers to promote a shared understanding of regional challenges and opportunities and joint solutions to deal with the effects of climate change on water resources, water-induced hazards, and upstream/downstream linkages.

More on the UIBN: https://www.icimod.org/initiative/about-uibn/

Tentative agenda

1 November 2022 | Timings in Alma-Ata Time (ALMT), UTC/GMT +6 hours