Objectives: The mission of the Regional Water Initiative (RWI) for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is to help countries in the MENA region formulate and implement national water resources policies and strategies to meet the challenge of sustainable water resources management and economic growth, and to catalyze increased attention to the problem of managing limited water resources more efficiently.
Background: The RWI emerged from the Regional Economic Summit held in Amman in October 1995. The underlying rationale was to address the impact of the overall scarcity of water in the MNA region on economic development. During consultations in Barcelona in March 1997 among participating countries, the Bank and co-sponsors it was decided that the RWI would promote knowledge sharing through a series of regional seminars on policy reform in water resources management, followed by thematic workshops. The Regional Water Initiative would thus provide a regional forum for promoting and facilitating water sector reform through dialogue and partnership and serve as a knowledge bank for design and implementation of reform.
The following four seminars and workshops have been held so far and were designed to seek input from the countries, the donors, and international financial institutions towards strategies and actions for water sector reform: Partnerships:
The work of the RWI is being carried out through Bank support and extensive participation from RWI partners. Development of partnerships among donor countries, international financial institutions, and regional water networks is critical to the success of the Initiative. The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Commission (EC) have contributed to the Cairo and Amman seminars, held respectively in 1998 and 1999. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) supported workshops on groundwater resources (Sana'a, 2000) and water reuse (Cairo, 2001) and continues to support RWI's work. More recently, the World Bank has signed a 3-year partnership agreement with the Third World Water Forum (3WWF) Secretariat to assist the MNA region in the preparation of the forum and in its policy dialogue and investment strategy with countries of the region. The 3-year RWI program will strengthen and expand the pool of partners to include international and regional organizations working on water issues, as well as the NGOs active in the region. In addition to the existing co-sponsors, the RWI will work closely with the Arab Gulf Program for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND).
Scope of the Initiative:
Based on the outcome of previous activities and consultations with the client countries and donor partners, a three-year program has been developed. The plan is designed to more pragmatically address the current and emerging issues related to water in the Region. It will complete the tasks in progress and in a systematic way initiate new activities relevant to the region and the countries. The majority of the RWI work over the next two years will be carried out through partnership with the 3rd World Water Forum (3WWF) Secretariat in preparation for the 2003 Forum.
The RWI 3-Year Plan is also consistent with the concepts put forth in the Bank’s Water Sector Strategy currently under development. RWI activities are closely coordinated with MNA Environment Group activities, including regional programs such as the Mediterranean Environmental Technical Assistance Program (METAP). As indicated earlier, RWI will not be involved in every aspect of water in the region, but will strategically engage the region in the water sector reform process.
RWI 3-Year Program of Activities (2002-2004):
Activities to be undertaken by the RWI over the next three years fall in following areas:
ï± Facilitate Exchange of Knowledge and Information
ï± Generate Knowledge and Support Sector Work
ï± Establish and Strengthen Partnership
The specific activities to be supported by the RWI during 2002 are:
· follow up on the thematic workshops on groundwater management by documenting best practice cases of participatory groundwater management; · initiating a policy review on water, agriculture and food security; · and deepening analytical work on transboundary issues in the Jordan River Basin based on previous studies.
In the longer term, other issues such as drought management, private sector participation in irrigation and water resources management, as well as gender and water will be addressed.
Other related activities will be conducted by the Bank outside the scope of the RWI. These include studies and workshops on water reuse based on the recommendations of the Cairo workshop on water reuse, as well as a study on institutional, financial, economic and social implications of desalination. |
