News and events

MENA Focus, a set of four regional sessions dedicated to the Middle East & North Africa, was officially launched at the Stockholm World Water Week 2016, alongside the Regional Days for Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med) had been selected and serves as the overall coordinator for these “MENA Focus” events.

Some 40 key stakeholders from the government; private companies and banks; research institutes and Academia; media as well as the Civil Society discussed and contributed to the final draft of the Report ‘Governance in Palestine: Sector Reform to include Private Sector Participation’, during the Third Consultation Workshop of the Palestinian Water Policy Dialogue. The workshop was organised by the Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med), within the Union for the Mediterranean project Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector and under the patronage of H.E. Mazen Ghuneim, Chairman of the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), in Ramallah, on 16 June 2015. 

GWP-Med organised a workshop on Mainstreaming Gender and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in water policy related work on 2-4 March 2015, in Athens, in the framework of the ‘Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector’ Project, aiming to strengthen the Secretariat’s, as well as its partners’ relevant capacity.

The first consultation workshop of the Water Policy Dialogue in Palestine, within the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) labelled project Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector was held in close cooperation with the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), on 13 November 2014, in Ramallah. With more than 40 key stakeholders from the government; private companies and banks; research institutes and Academia; media as well as the Civil Society actively participating, the workshop marked the official launch of the Policy Dialogue to be conducted by GWP-Med within the period 2014-2015.

The 1^st Regional Conference of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) labelled project Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector was organised on 28-30 October 2014, in Athens, Greece, by the Global Water Partnership- Mediterranean (GWP-Med), in close collaboration with the EU funded Sustainable Water Integrated Management-Support Mechanism (SWIM-SM) project. It convened more than 110 decision makers; representatives of government; civil society; the private sector; international organisations; donors and financing institutions.

The national Water Policy Dialogue, having engaged more than 100 Tunisian stakeholders within the past year (2013-2014), concluded with the launch of the National Report “Water Governance in Tunisia: Overcoming the Challenges to Private Sector Participation” held on 9 June 2014, in Tunis. The Report is the outcome of the multi-stakeholder Policy Dialogue and includes a diagnostic analysis of the key governance bottlenecks to private sector participation (PSP) in water supply and sanitation services as well as concrete policy recommendations for overcoming them.