Fourteen (14) national experts from the South Mediterranean Countries (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine) in addition to international and regional experts met in Athens between 2 and 4 September 2013 to elaborate a Mediterranean-wide system enabling a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of participatory irrigation management (PIM)- an approach involving the people who directly use the irrigation water, i.e. the farmers -and transfer of irrigation management (IMT) responsibilities from the government to Water Users Associations (WUAs).

The Expert Group developed a checklist of quantitative and qualitative indicators to assess, on the one hand, the degree of political commitment and the adequacy of existing institutional arrangements towards PIM/IMT implementation and, on the other hand, the institutional, financial and technical performance of these Associations and the impact of their establishment.

The innovativeness of the developed M&E system lies with its comprehensiveness, as it covers the different phases of PIM/IMT implementation process, namely:

(1) Preparatory Phase which is about assessing the need for PIM/IMT and mobilizing support for adoption of a transfer policy. 

(2) Planning Phase involving strategic planning to organize the basic arrangements for the reform process, resolution of key policy issues before planning for implementation can begin and reorganizing the government agency and;

(3) Implementation Phase that is concerned with the actual establishment and operationalisation of the WUAs and eventual support after establishment.

In addition to the experiences and best practices that were shared and discussed during the meeting and that are being integrated in its final version, the elaborated M&E system takes stock of the findings of a regional review and of a compilation of international relevant practices undertaken by SWIM-SM.

Should it be adopted, it will help the countries of the region to evaluate and rectify the PIM/IMT process regardless of its development stage.

To facilitate the use of the proposed M&E system, its content will be subsequently converted into a user-friendly application for further testing under local conditions in two pilot areas of two SWIM countries with emphasis on the replication possibilities by other countries.

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