News and Activities

This article is part of a wider coverage of the “MENA Focus” events, a set of four regional sessions dedicated to the Middle East & North Africa, officially launched at the Stockholm World Water Week 2016, alongside the Regional Days for Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med) had been selected and serves as the overall coordinator for these “MENA Focus” events. The sessions were organized in partnership with a number of international regional institutions and organisations. “Seeking answers to the MENA water crisis” was the first out of the four sessions, held on the 30^th of August.

This year’s Stockholm World Water Week successfully launched the inclusion of a set of events dedicated to the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) Region in the Week’s official programme, alongside the Regional Days for Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med) had been selected and serves as the overall coordinator for these “MENA Focus” events. The Sessions were organized in partnership with a number of international regional institutions and organisations.

Building up from previous awareness raising activities organized in the framework of the youth initiative run by the Global Water Partnership - Mediterranean (GWP-Med) in Tunisia aimed at making the youth’s voice heard in water resources management and climate change adaptation, and putting more emphasis on the potential of interactive games for awareness raising among youth audiences, a two-day training was organized on Aqua Republica Serious Game by the NGO “Recherche en Action” (REACT), in collaboration with the NGO “Tunisian Education and Resource Network” (TEARN).

In the 6th Africa Water Week, the largest biennial water event in Africa, held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, on July 18-22, 2016, GWP-Med shared its experience on mobilising Non Conventional Water Resources (NCWR) as a measure to augment water availability in urban environment.

GWP-Med, representing on occasion also GWP, has been contributing to the OECD Water Governance Initiative (WGI)[1] since its launch in 2013. In this framework, GWP-Med participated in the 7^th meeting of the WGI held on 23-24 June 2016, in The Hague, the Netherlands. The meeting brought together some 80 representatives of organizations and institutions, members to the Initiative.

The GEF Drin Project ‘Enabling transboundary cooperation and integrated water resources management in the extended Drin River Basin’ ^[1] organized its 1^st capacity building workshop on “Transboundary Water Cooperation and International Water Law” in Athens, on 14-15 June. 

The 3^rd Regional Alumni Workshop in the framework of the Sida funded and Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) labelled programme ‘Water Integrity Capacity Building Programme for the MENA Region’[1] was organized by the Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med), in collaboration with Al Akhawayn University, on 23-26 May 2016, in Ifrane, Morocco.

The Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med), along the Tunisian Ministry for Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, held a national workshop on the thematic “The Tunisian agriculture faced with climate change: which guidelines, measures and priority actions to follow?”, on 30-31 Mai 2016, in Gammarth, Tunisia.

A far-reaching political and technical process towards establishing a joint vision for water security in the Mediterranean towards 2030 and beyond is on-going in the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). It draws on integrated responses, focusing on the feasible and the tangible. Building trust among countries and stakeholders, it aims at linking capacities and financial resources towards addressing needs. GWP-Med contributes to the UfM process servicing as its technical facilitator.