Following the successful conduct of two trainings in 2015, the third regional training course on water integrity for the Middle East and North Africa region was held on 7-8 December 2016 in Tunis, Tunisia and back to back with the 2nd Union for the Mediterranean and GWP-Med Regional Conference of the Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector programme (5-6 Dec. 2016, Tunis).
More than 25 targeted participants from public authorities, utilities, academia and the private sector learned about the context and relevance of integrity in the management of water; methods and practical tools to improve transparency, accountability and participation in their work for better water governance and more sustainable socio-economic development and water investments.
This Regional Training, conducted in close cooperation with with the Arab Integrated Water Resources Management Network (AWARENET), a Cap-Net UNDP affiliated regional network on capacity development in sustainable water management for the Arab region hosted by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN ESCWA), is part of a series of workshops, specifically tailored for the MENA Region, as part of the Regional ‘Water Integrity Capacity Building Programme for the MENA Region’ (WI MENA).
The WI MENA programme is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and has been officially labelled under the UfM framework, with the overall objective to develop targeted stakeholders’ capacities for water integrity in the MENA Region, thereby improving transparency and accountability practices in water resources management. Starting in 2014, the programme has been led by the UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI in cooperation with GWP-Med, the International Union for Conservation of Nature - Regional Office for West Asia (IUCN-ROWA) and national partners. It has conducted water integrity risk assessments and mapped the capacity needs of the main stakeholders in water resources management in five pilot countries, namely Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia. Existing training material on water integrity was adapted to fit the needs of the region and a pool of water integrity trainers has been created to deliver water integrity trainings on the ground.
The series of regional trainings in particular, aims at reaching out to the wider MENA and Mediterranean region, beyond the Programme’s five pilot countries and specific target groups.