In Spain, this high-level consultative agency was created in 2009 and includes autonomous communities, local entities, river-basin authorities, and professional and economic unions related to water. These include, for example, the consultation of private actors (including citizens’ groups, water users “associations and civil society”) and financial transfers and incentives across levels of government (e.g. earmarked versus general-purpose grants for financing infrastructure). Other instruments they can consider are co-ordination agencies, contractual arrangements, (multi)sectoral conferences, performance indicators, regulations, shared databases, river basin organisations, regulation and performance indicators, and intermediate bodies. Box 3.4 provides some examples of the use of performance indicators in a number of OECD countries. Some OECD countries have chosen to use all the mechanisms listed above (e.g. France, Mexico), while others have adopted none, due to highly centralised water policy and limited involvement of sub-national actors (Korea, Israel). The STOWA (institute of Applied Scientific Research) is leading the drive toward standardisation of monitoring systems for water quality, water quantity and ecology.