News and Activities

International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8 every year to commemorate the movement for women's rights. For 2018, International Women’s Day comes on the heels of unprecedented global movement for women’s rights, equality and justice. This has taken the form of global marches and campaigns, including #MeToo and #TimesUp in the United States of America and their counterparts in other countries, on issues ranging from sexual harassment and femicide to equal pay and women’s political representation. In this context, the UN theme for the 2018 International Women’s Day is “Time is Now: Rural and urban activists transforming women’s lives”.

More than 140 decision makers and representatives of government, civil society, international organisations, donors, financing institutions, and the private and banking sector, came together for 3 days sharing experiences and discussing needs, challenges and next steps during the “Conference on Water Governance in MENA and wider Mediterranean region” that was held in Barcelona, on 12-14 December. The Regional Conference was organised under the auspices of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), by two UfM-labelled projects supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), namely the Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector project led by GWP-Med, and the Regional Water Integrity Capacity Building Programme in MENA, led by SIWI UNDP Water Governance Facility. The Conference was organised in close and strategic synergy with the EU-funded Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Horizon 2020 Support Mechanism (SWIM-H2020 SM) regional project.

More than 100 Members of Parliament, media and representatives of civil society working on environment and water issues got together from 22-24 November 2017, in Nicosia, to get informed, exchange views and provide suggestions on key Mediterranean processes on environment and water in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Participants originated from Albania, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia along with the members of the United Nations Environment, UNESCO, UNECE, the Union for Mediterranean (UfM) and League of Arab States (LAS).

The 3rd Consultation Workshop on enhancing the potential for Private Sector Participation in Water Infrastructure in Lebanon, with emphasis on the role of Banks was organised in Beirut on the 8th November 2017, as part of the National Policy Dialogue on Water Governance and Financing. The Workshop involved more than 25 targeted representatives of relevant public institutions, private banks, regional organisations and NGOs.

The Global Water Partnership Mediterranean is seeking to hire an Individual Consultant in the framework of the project Water, Climate and Development Programme «WACDEP» in synergy with ‘Making Water Cooperation Happen in the Mediterranean’ Project, in relation to the “Gender Mainstreaming Strategy“ in the NWSAS basin and “Training on gender mainstreaming in development planning”.

The Global Water Partnership Mediterranean is seeking to hire an expert in the framework of WACDEP project for the activity:Study for the reinforcement of the water resources monitoring & evaluation system in Mauritania.

The investment potential in wastewater treatment and reuse in Middle East & North Africa (MENA) was discussed at a session organised by the Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med) during the recent World Water Week in Stockholm (27 August – 1 September 2017). This was part of the “MENA Focus” set of 4 sessions, led by key institutions in the Region.2017 was the 2nd year that a dedicated MENA Regional Focus was part of the World Water Weeks’ programme, alongside the Regional Focus Days for Africa, Asia and Latin America. In addition to the (co) organization of sessions, GWP-Med is coordinating the overall “MENA Focus”.