A two-day regional workshop involving experts from the SWIM Partner Countries was organized on 23-24 April 2012 in Athens with the aim to:
a) promote sharing of experiences and best practices in the establishment and operationalization of WUAs in the region and
b) discuss / validate the findings of a SWIM-SM Regional Assessment illustrating the range of experiences – both successful and less successful - in water users’ participation with regard to irrigation, complemented with specific case studies coming from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia. The Regional Assessment was conducted in cooperation with and input from the SWIM National Focal Points and involved relevant stakeholders.
Twenty (20) international, regional and local experts from seven countries participated in the regional workshop, including representatives of governments, WUAs, regional organisations and donors in addition to non-governmental organisations involved in the establishment and empowerment of WUAs in the region.
Among outcomes, the workshop identified gaps and concrete follow-up actions for the SWIM-SM Project to undertake, including targeted capacity building and trainings in order to improve local water management and reinforce users’ participation in irrigation management.
Opportunities for networking between the countries’ representatives and international, regional and independent experts were also created.
The workshop falls under one of the four thematic pillars of the SWIM project involving enhancement of knowledge on ‘water governance at the local level’ with emphasis for the first year on experiences in Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) and irrigation management transfer for WUAs in the region.
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