The proposed project responds to a decision taken by the Plata Treaty countries in 2001 during the IV Inter-American Water Management Dialogue. In that occasion the countries agreed on the need to develop, with the assistance of the GEF, a Framework Program for the la Plata Basin in order to: “i) coordinate projects of common interest for the la Plata Basin countries; ii) carry out projects in water resources management and select concrete prioritized actions; iii) highlight the importance of flood and drought phenomena in the Basin, among others; iv) define sustainable hydrology; and v) promote regional initiatives identified as priorities by two or more countries within the framework of the la Plata Treaty....”. The present proposal builds upon the experience gained through several GEF projects addressing specific sub-basins an groundwater systems part of the larger Plata Basin, and is the result of extensive preparation work (PDF-A, PDF-B) carried out by the CIC (Intergovernmental Coordinating Committee for the Plata Basin) with the assistance of UNEP and the OAS.