National Water Policy Dialogues & Reports

The ‘Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector’ Project was launched during a high–level conference organised by GWP-Med, in Barcelona, on 28-29 May 2013, in close cooperation and under the auspices of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Secretariat.

The project draws on established OECD methodology and previous work undertaken by GWP-Med and the OECD in Egypt and Lebanon. The methodology builds on the implementers’ long-standing practice of providing neutral platforms for building consensus and sharing good practices among a wide range of stakeholders. The process involves evidence-based national and regional policy dialogues, fact-finding missions, analytical reports, bilateral and multilateral interviews, questionnaires, case studies and peer-reviews.
On the national level, multi-stakeholder policy dialogues allowed building a shared consensus among key stakeholders on the main bottlenecks to sustainable financing for the water sector, including from the private sector, and on actions to address, paving the way for recommendations and an action plan for reforms based on internationally recognized tools and best practices. These recommendations were included in analytical country Reports, based on in-depth technical work.

The Tunisian Water Policy Dialogue (2013-2014) was conducted jointly by GWP-Med and the OECD, in the framework of the UfM labelled ‘Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector’ Project, with the support of the FEMIP Trust Fund of the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the GEF UNEP/MAP MedPartnership Programme and the Mediterranean Component of the EU Water Initiative (MED EUWI). The Report “Water Governance in Tunisia: Overcoming the Challenges to Private Sector Participation” is available in French on the OECD i-library.

The Jordanian Water Policy Dialogue (2013-2014) was conducted jointly by GWP-Med and the OECD, in the framework of the UfM labelled ‘Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector’ Project, in close cooperation with the Jordanian Ministry of Water and Irrigation (MWI) and with the support of the FEMIP Trust Fund of the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Mediterranean Component of the EU Water Initiative (MED EUWI). The Report “Water Governance in Jordan: Overcoming the Challenges to Private Sector Participation” is available on the OECD i-library.

The Palestinian Policy Dialogue (2014-2015) was conducted by GWP-Med, in close collaboration with the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), in the framework of the UfM labelled ‘Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector’ Project, with the financial support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the GEF – UNEP/MAP MedPartnership Programme. The Report ’Water Governance in Palestine: Sector Reform to include Private Sector Participation (PSP)’ is available here.

This work on the national level has informed and assisted with the concretization/elaboration of the OECD Principles on Water Governance through a multi-stakeholder approach in the framework of the OECD Water Governance Initiative (WGI) since 2013. Being a member to WGI, GWP-Med has brought in its valuable experience from the “Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector” Project and the multi-stakeholder dialogues, offering constructive feedback, along with more than 120 other members of the platform.