Transboundary cooperation in river basins has evolved over time. In Africa there are 18 river basin organisations,17 in Asia and 22 in South America. International support for RBOs is increasing. In their simplest form,there might be an agreement or institutional arrangements that only pertain to the physical river and relate to
a single issue – such as navigation, security, information sharing or pollution control, without any allocation of resources. In the second stage, institutions are established to manage and oversee specific resource allocation agreements or joint infrastructure management agreements. The third and most complex level is a river basin
organisation with a mandate to execute/propose integrated river basin management.