Water Users' Associations Development in Southeastern European Countries

A four-day regional workshop on ‘Development of Water Users’ Associations in Southeastern European Countries’ was held during June 4-7, 2007 at the World Bank’s Romania office in Bucharest, Romania. The main objective of the workshop was to share experiences on participatory irrigation management (PIM) reforms and to discuss options and solutions for the development and sustainability of WUAs in the SEE region.

The workshop had three main components: (i) discuss and deliberate upon the issues and constraints facing the agricultural water/irrigation sector in the countries of the region today with particular focus on WUAs, including gender issues, and the role of women in water management; (ii) share country experiences on WUAs, promote cross-country learning and document the lessons learnt; and (iii) learn from international experiences on PIM /WUAs reforms and best practice examples – with ultimate aim of building capacity of key stakeholders involved in reforms, and supporting and strengthening on-going reforms through development of sustainable WUAs in the region.

With financial support from the Bank Netherlands Water Partnership Program, the workshop was organized by the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, World Bank and the World Bank Institute (WBI), and was facilitated by the Executive Director of the International Network on Participatory Irrigation Management (INPIM). The workshop was attended by 28 participants – representing relevant ministries, project management units (PMUs), WUAs and the World Bank including WBI and the Bank’s country offices from 5 countries: Romania, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. The workshop was opened by Mr. Dacian Ciolos, Under-Secretary of the State, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Romania and Mr. Usaid El Hanbali, Senior Water Resources Engineer, the World Bank, Washington DC. The 4-day program included detailed country presentations and discussions on experiences with WUAs development, presentation on the World Bank support to WUAs development in the SEE region through infrastructure rehabilitation and institutional reform projects, presentations on international experiences with institutional reforms in irrigation sector, smaller groups discussions, and a one-day field visit to Sadova-Corabia irrigation scheme in Romania.

Water Users' Associations Development in Southeastern European Countries - Proceedings of the Regional Workshop on WUAs Development, June 4-7, 2007, Burcharest, Romania (pdf, 9mb)