Regional Water Governance Benchmarking Project Results Workshop in Amman

The USAID-OMED sponsored Regional Water Governance Benchmarking Project will hold a workshop for participants from our 5 pilot countries (Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, and Turkey) on 27-29 June in Amman.

The purpose of the workshop is to present the results of the project's governance assessments and to discuss the implications for MENA region water governance and governance improvement. 40 to 50 people are expected to attend.

Purpose:          
To presentthe initial results of the project's governance assessments and discuss theimplications for MENA region water governance

Invited people and organisations:    
Five participantsfrom each of the 5 participating countries (Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Oman,Turkey), approximately 10 project staff, and observers (SIWI, UNDP-AS, USAID, EMWIS,InWent, AWC, AWA, others).

Approach:       
The first daywould be devoted to a general description of water governance and itsdimensions, the project approach to governance assessment, and the results ofour 5 country assessments.  The secondday would focus on the implications of positive and negative aspects of watergovernance for water sector performance and intervention points for creating improvements.

The International Resources Group (IRG) and partners initiated the Regional Water Governance Benchmarking in the Middle East North Africa Region project (ReWaG) in September 2008.  The project is slated to run for 18 months and is funded by the USAID Office of Middle East Programs (USAID/OMEP) at a level of $1.5 million. Implementing partners working with IRG include the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the Institute for Water and Watersheds at Oregon State University (OSU), Computer Assisted Development Incorporated (CADI), Nile Consultants of Egypt and ECO Consult of Jordan.

The project is targeted on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Countries being considered for primary focus include Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, West Bank/Gaza, Tunisia, and Yemen. In addition, neighboring countries such as Libya, Mauritania, Sudan, and Turkey; and Gulf countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE could be included as well.