From a Technical Tool to Governance Function: Institutionalizing Water Accounting in Egypt through a Comparative Analysis with Australia

This technical report examines how water accounting can move from a biophysical technical assessment tool to an institutionalized public governance function in Egypt. It argues that institutionalizing water accounting is at the core of strengthening policy coherence by aligning fragmented mandates, data systems, reporting practices, and allocation decisions across competitive water-related sectors. The paper uses a comparative governance approach by capitalizing on Australia’s experience with the National Water Account as a benchmark for legal mandate, organizational ownership, inter-agency reporting, and routinized publication. Through this comparison, the study develops a five-dimensional framework for institutionalizing water accounting: defining public value, establishing a legal and policy mandate, creating a three-layer institutional arrangement, adopting staged implementation, and embedding standard reporting cycles. Based on this analytical framework, the paper assessed the existing opportunities and constraints for Egypt in moving toward coherent mandates, horizontal and vertical standard reporting, and cross-sectoral data sharing.