REGIONAL REVIEW OF NATIONAL WATER PLANS AND/OR STRATEGIES AND REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON PLANNING WATER RESOURCES IN SWIM-SM COUNTRIES, WITH FOCUS ON IWRM STRATEGIES AND PLANS

SWIM-Support Mechanism has prepared a Regional Review of the status of National Water Plans and/or Strategies and the progress towards Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). This activity was identified as a concrete priority by the SWIM PCs during the inception phase and the country fact-finding missions and aims to provide the PCs and the international community, at large, with an assessment and close-up look on the status of national water planning in one of the most arid regions of the world.

The Review has been prepared in this context and with the threefold objective to: i) provide a concise regional appraisal, ii) conduct a more elaborate assessment of the overarching conditions in three PCs, namely Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia and iii) identify, based on the previous analyses, politically plausible, socially acceptable and financially implementable policy options and recommendations for advancing the preparation, implementation and monitoring of plans and/or strategies with replicability potential in the PCs and in the rest of the Mediterranean at large. This latter part is complemented by a series of existing and upcoming opportunities that can assist with the implementation of the identified policy options.

More importantly, the Review aimed to provide the analytical background for a structured and inclusive policy dialogue among the Partner Countries (PCs), within the SWIM framework, in order to enhance the operationalisation of IWRM approaches with emphasis on mainstreaming water considerations in other sectors through experience sharing and exchange of good and bad lessons learnt.

With these objectives in mind, a Regional Workshop was organised in Athens on 13-14 June 2012, bringing together 27 participants from 7 SWIM PCs from the water and environment sectors, regional organisations, along with two experts of international calibre. The Workshop i) evaluated and validated the findings of the Review, ii) discussed the degree of success and the achievements in the PCs, iii) deliberated on the main constraints, gaps, shortcomings and challenges encountered and, iv) examined available and upcoming opportunities and agreed on a series of measures and plausible policy options and ways to expedite the implementation of IWRM principles. With the main focus being on advancing the implementation of IWRM approaches and mainstreaming water considerations in other sectors, the participants identified four areas for priority action, namely institutional capacity building, cross-sectoral coordination, stakeholder participation and decentralisation.