Projects & Initiatives

SDG-Climate Facility

A multi-phased program that aims at supporting countries in integrating climate measures into broader SDG affiliated policies and plans while developing national capacities in accessing climate finance towards building resilience to risks and enhancing adaptive capacities in the Arab region to climate risks and natural hazards.

The program will bring together partners from regional institutions, governments, UN, the private sector, civil society, and academia to develop capacities for integrating climate change into development and crisis recovery programmes and policies, and scale up climate finance to support bottom-up solutions that build resilience to risks and strengthen adaptive capacities.

Objective:

To enhance the capacity of regional and national institutions to effectively integrate climate change into development and crisis prevention/recovery actions, including support to scale-up climate finance for innovative local solutions with co-benefits across SDGs.

Partners:

LAS
UNDP
UNEP-FI
UNISDR
UN-HABITAT
WFP

SDG-Climate Nexus Facility

The “Acceleration of Aquifer Storage and Recovery in the MENA Region” project aims at improving water security in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by accelerating the practice of aquifer storage and recovery (ASR). Under this project, new methods for identifying high potential ASR sites, based on remote sensing and geospatial hydrologic analysis, are applied and demonstrated across beneficiary countries of Jordan, Palestine, and Lebanon. The project also aims to enhance the capacity of MENA national institutions in developing non-conventional water resources for domestic and agricultural water supplies in line with the Arab Water Security Strategy, 2015-2030 endorsed by the League of Arab States and also in line with the sustainable development Goal 6.A: "By 2030, expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water- and sanitation-related activities and programmes, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling, and reuse technologies".

Through the project implementation period, adoption of ASR methods shall be accelerated by overcoming problems of efficiency and characterizing high potential sites. New methods that build on recent advances in remote sensing and geospatial data will be applied to map ASR potential in three study areas; the results will be tested and verified both at existing ASR locations and at locations where high ASR potential is indicated.

The project is funded by USAID. Also, multiple partners will contribute to the implementation of the project’s activities. Collaborating partners currently are:

• US Geological Survey (USGS)
• American University of Beirut (AUB)
• Jordan Ministry of Water & Irrigation (MWI)
• Litani River Authority (LRA)
• National Center for Research & Development (NCDR)
• Hydrology.NL

Previous partners (before January 2019) included:

• Al-Najah National University
• CrossVision/Acacia Water
• Palestinian Water Authority (PWA)

The Climate Risk Nexus Initiative

by the League of rab States (LAS)
in collaboration with
UNDP, AWC, UNISDR, WFP, UNEDP-FI and WMO

A rapidly changing climate, greater exposure to disaster risks, and trends of land degradation, food and water insecurity, present an unprecedented challenge for development in the Arab region.

The situation is particularly severe for vulnerable communities in the region that are already struggling with food and water insecurity.

Climate change is compounding development challenges in the Arab region, and is acting as a risk multiplier to various social and development issues.

These were enough reasons behind the initiation of the Climate Risk Nexus Initiative by the League of Arab States (LAS) in collaboration with UNDP, AWC, UNISDR, and WFP which helps realize the goal of LAS to achieve greater policy coherence across goals of climate change, disaster risk reduction, food and water security, and social vulnerability.

The objective of the Climate Risk Nexus Initiative is to develop capacities of LAS and Member States to enact decisions and policies that better manage the growing complexity of risks and support the resilience of people.

The Climate Risk Nexus Initiative will help develop capacities of regional and local partners to address gaps that exist to achieving more risk-informed development and help to strengthen the resilience of people.

SDG-Climate Nexus Facility

The Facility is considered a multi-phased program that aims at supporting countries in integrating climate measures into broader SDG affiliated policies and plans while developing national capacities in accessing climate finance towards building resilience to risks and enhancing adaptive capacities in the Arab region to climate risks and natural hazards.

The facility represents a platform which will bring together partners from regional institutions, governments, UN, private sector, civil society and academia to develop capacities for integrating climate change into development and crisis recovery programmes and policies, and scale up climate finance to support bottom up solutions that build resilience to risks and strengthen adaptive capacities.

The Facility will regularly report to the Arab Sustainable Development High-Level Committee in the League of Arab States. Through the Facility, efforts will focus on:

- Mapping out related regional and national strategies in the Arab region with goals related to water and food security, land management, social empowerment, and ways actions on SDG 13, and NDCs that can help achieve them;

- Building bridges among development goals, actors and initiatives, while bringing forth added value from synergies and complementarities;

- Strengthening regional cooperation and knowledge networks across disciplines;

- Responding to gaps in science and data for managing climate, water and disaster risks;

- Integrating climate measures into development and disaster risk management policies and plans;

- Developing capacities for scaling up climate finance and bringing co-benefits for related SDGs on poverty, food, water, energy, gender, health, inequality, land and ecosystems, peace and partnerships;

- Building local leadership and capacities for transformational change in development and crisis recovery policies;

- Supporting policy development and project preparations for achieving the NDCs in a way that considers SDG Climate Nexus approaches at the national and regional levels.

Partners:

• LAS
• AWC
• UNDP
• WFP
• UNISDR
• UNEP-FI
• WMO

The Climate Risk Nexus Initiative

CWPF MENA Regional Project aims to establish the national and regional ET measurement, monitoring, and management system, by transferring the advanced Chinese remote sensing technologies to the beneficiary countries in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia. This shall help the countries to better manage local and regional agriculture water resources and reduce the threat of climate change to vulnerable agricultural production within and across countries. The project will mainly focus on the improvement of the agriculture water productivity and strengthen the adaptation to climate change (CC) and agriculture risk resilience under constraint of agriculture water consumption caps at the country and regional levels, by applying quantitative and spatial-based decision-making tools, in order to reduce the inefficient agriculture water consumption and minimize the negative CC impacts on national water and food securities.

The project is funded by the World Bank; however, multiple partners will contribute to the implementation of the project activities. Currently the collaborating partners are:

• Arab Water Council (AWC)
• Ministry of Water Resources & Irrigation - Egypt
• Ministry of Water and Irrigation - Jordan
• National Council for Scientific Research - Lebanon
• Le Centre Royal de Télédétection Spatiale - Morocco
• Centre Regional de Teledetection des Etats de L'Afrique du Nord (C.R.T.E.A.N) - Tunisia

Introduction:

The Arab region faces a diversity of water challenges that need coordinated actions if water security is to be achieved. In light of such existing water deficit, the use of non-conventional water has become an irreplaceable strategic option. From here the idea of initiating an Arab Non-Conventional Water Resources program was triggered by the Arab Water Council (AWC) to address the above challenges towards a secure Arab water future.

Scope of Work:

In accordance with AWC strategy, several major activities were initiated, with special focus on the Sustainable Development Goals. One of the main activities was the launching of an "Arab Non-Conventional Water Resources Initiative" which builds on and complements other regional programs, particularly the Arab Water Security Strategy (2010 – 2030) and the FAO Water Scarcity initiative.
Within this context, six policy briefs were prepared including: (1) Sustainable development of non-conventional water resources in the Arab region; (2) Desalination prospective; (3) Agricultural drainage water reuse; (4) Reuse of treated wastewater; (5) Sustainable brackish groundwater use; (6) Water harvesting.

Main Findings:

• The future of “Arab Water Security” will largely depend on the development of non-conventional water resources.
• Desalinated water capacity will need to expand several folds by 2025.
• Reuse of treated wastewater and agricultural drainage water hold a great potential to reduce the gap between water supply and demand.
• Brackish groundwater can be utilized for municipal, industrial, aquaculture and for restricted irrigation of high salinity-tolerant crops.
• Improving water harvesting techniques requires efficient management, capacity building and good governance.

Recommendations:

Developing an enhanced Policy Framework is recommended, as well as creating a legal and institutional enabling environment, technical capacity building, environmental and socio-economic considerations, and financial measures, among others.
The proposed action is to build up NCWR-related portfolio of projects which could be further supported for soliciting financing through local, regional and international funding institutions.

Establishing a Regional Learning Alliance (RLA) could be the regional core of this work in support of regional science-policy dialogues, knowledge exchange between countries, regional awareness on the benefits and risks of reuse, and stakeholders’ integration to a regional network of practitioners, all to speed up the adoption and replication of reuse solutions across the Arab region.

POLICY BRIEFS

In 2018, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and its partners embarked on a 4-year project that will help expand the safe reuse of water in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The project will address barriers to reuse in the region and promote safe reuse practices that improve food safety, health and livelihoods.

For More Information Please Visit the link below:

http://rewater-mena.iwmi.org/

 Documents :

1- Focal Points
2- Public Engagement Project Summary
3- Monitoring Public Engagement in Water Management in the MENA region a template with guidelines
4- Public Engagement in Water Governance in the MENA Region A Review

Main Challenges in MENA

Fresh Water Scarcity in MENA Region is more and more a challenge that is affecting the development of the region. MENA is among the most fresh-water scarce regions in the world.

The MENA region is vulnerable to climate change, significant dependence on climate sensitive agriculture and high concentrations of both population and economic activity in flood prone urban coastal zones. (IPCC) models predict that temperature and water variability will increase in several countries of the region with water precipitation predicted to drop by up to 30% by 2050.

Time to address these challenges using the Utilized Earth Science and satellite observations in conjunction with ground measurements, remote sensing tools and models to examine scientific questions  and address water resources issues, understand and adapt to climate change impacts for decision making and societal benefits.

In June 2008, AWC, World Bank, representatives from most of the Arab League countries, USAID, NASA, ICBA supported this idea by Implementing the “Regional Coordination On improved Water Resources Management and Capacity Building Program

Objective

Improve water resources and agricultural management across beneficiary countries based on quantitative and spatial -based making tools of remote sensing.

Regional Project Overview

This Program is a multi-country Adaptable Program (APL) financed under a Global Environment Facility (GEF) Grant, to finance the technical assistance, hardware and software infrastructure required to build the capacity of the involved governments to improve local and regional water resources and agricultural management using earth observation tools.

Phase 1 of the APL supports activities in Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and AWC.
Phase 2 of the APL is supporting the same activities in Egypt through National Authority for Remote Sensing
and Space Science (NARSS), and will be triggered upon the Government of Egypt’s

For More Information Please visit the project website www.rciwrm-awc.org

Project Total Budget: 5.644 US$M

Implementation Completion And Results Report (Region Coordination on Improved Water Resources Management and Capacity Building Programs)

AWC/FAO Project for developing “Guidelines for Brackish Water Use for Agricultural Production in the NENA Region" (2014 – 2015)

 In support of the Cairo Recommendations issued by the “Regional Workshop on Brackish Water Use” held in June 2013 in Cairo, the Arab Water Council (AWC) and The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have signed a Memorandum of Agreement for provision of “Guidelines for Brackish water Use for Agricultural Production in the Near East and North Africa”. The project is implemented within the framework of a regional project on “Sustainable Management of Brackish Water Agriculture Use in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) Region", under the umbrella of the FAO Water Scarcity Initiative. While considering the objective of supporting member countries for adapting national programs and policies to turning low-quality water into resources and contributing to developing the capacity of member countries on related fields through using brackish water. This activity is implemented in nine pilot countries including: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Yemen.

Three regional workshops were organized to present and discuss the development steps of these guidelines. The first of which took place in May 2014 in Doha, Qatar, on the occasion of the 2nd Arab Water Conference, whereas the second and third took place in Cairo, Egypt during the 3^rd Arab Water Forum (December 2014) and during the workshops (May 2015). During the workshops, the threshold limits for water and soil salinities were presented for discussion and were approved by the participating international and national consultants and water experts from the NENA countries. The Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) for brackish water use were also presented and evaluated.

Additionally, a fourth Regional Workshop took place on the occasion of the 4th General Assembly meetings of the Arab Water Council in Cairo, Egypt, on February 29th, 2016 with the following main objectives:
- To present the developed guidelines for brackish water use for agricultural production in the NENA Region, together with the methodology used, and the recommended integrated management strategies for soil, water and crops as good agricultural practices with the aim of putting the guidelines in its final form;
- To discuss the future related activities and the way forward towards making best use of those guidelines by the Governments of the NENA countries.

Finally, a fifth Regional Workshop took place on the occasion of the 4th African Regional Conference on Irrigation and Drainage (ARCID) in April 2016 in the city of Aswan, Egypt, with the aim of setting the stage for the next phase and the way forward towards implementation.
It was recommended that:
• The Guidelines need to be simplified as an easy implementation manual to be addressed to the farmer in the native Arabic language.
• Based on the developed guidelines, more studies in the field of brackish water can be conducted in the future through a regional project on a wider scale.

The final guidelines under this agreement will be disseminated to relevant stakeholders, researchers and agricultural engineers on the Arab scale.

GUIDELINES FOR BRACKISH WATER USE FOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN THE NEAR EAST AND NORTH AFRICA REGION