Support to the European Union Water Initiative Mediterranean Component (MED EUWI)

The Project will give technical support to the MED EUWI Secretariat in the implementation of activities in the framework of the Mediterranean Component of the EU Water Initiative. This is one of the components of the EU Water Initiative launched in 2002. The overall objective of the project is to promote the adoption of IWRM governance principles through their use for the definition and implementation of water management policies and measures, at both national and regional levels. This will be achieved through the implementation of national policy dialogues, support for the Joint Process WFD-MED EUWI and support to the Strategy for Water in the Mediterranean. 

In this context, the MED EUWI Secretariat will take the lead in planning and establishing the relevant activities with the support of the project and the Project will deliver technical expertise and implement studies and dialogue processes.

Main Activities:

The Project will support the MED EUWI Secretariat in conducting country policy dialogues on IWRM in a number of Mediterranean countries that request so. Dialogues have already started in Lebanon, Egypt and Palestine, some as early as 2005, and are under discussion in a number of other countries such as Tunisia and Syria.

The dialogues are supported by relevant studies around which dialogue and consultation processes are built up. These studies will be financed from different sources (EU, GEF, and Greek Government); the studies financed by the EU will be implemented by the Project.

The Project will assist the (Mediterranean) Joint Process WFD-EUWI with an emphasis on supporting the six working groups that were put in place since 2004 and continuing the implementation of pilot projects in river basins outside the EU where WFD principles can be tested and applied under local conditions. 
The project will support the implementation of the Strategy for Water in the Mediterranean whenever this will become politically opportune. This will most probably imply support for the preparation of Action Plans, but this has not been decided yet. 

As a last activity, the Project will prepare and update a list of no-regret measures (soft and hard) related to the implementation of the Strategy for Water in the Mediterranean.

Expected outputs:

 Expected outputs are the following:· Contributions to the development of water policies and instruments in the different countries that participate in the dialogue. Moreover the dialogue processes will be evaluated on achievement of objectives.· Relevant studies that support the dialogues in Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and Tunisia and possibly other countries.· A complete and regularly updated database on country dialogue documentation.· Technical documents as contributions to the development of the SWM, their content and number to be agreed between the MED EUWI Secretariat, the WEG and the Consultant.· A new Programme 2010-2012 for the Joint Process under responsibility of the MED EUWI Secretariat. The Programme will include Expert Group Activities, but also support (pilot projects, advice) for river basin activities in other than EU partner countries.· Two meetings of selected Expert Working Groups and relevant documentation.· A list of no-regret measures for the implementation of the Water Strategy for the Mediterranean.

Planning of activities:

The project will start with a 4 months Inception Phase in which target countries will be visited and a more precise planning of activities will be made. Due to a delayed start of the project activities (the second kick-off meeting with the MED-EUWI Secretariat did not take place before May 2010) the Inception Phase will be completed on 15 September 2010.

During the Inception Phase, the Project will also discuss and plan the technical activities (studies) related to the various national dialogues. These studies are supposed to kick-off immediately after the completion of the Inception Phase. The studies and dialogues will continue over the whole project implementation period.
The project will support Joint Process activities starting October 2010. Eventual river basin pilot activities will be conducted mainly in 2011. The support to the Strategy for Water for the Mediterranean is an on-demand activitydepending on political decisions that cannot be planned on forehand and needs to be fit into other Project activities as it comes.

The project will start working on the list of no regret measures at the end of 2010; thelist will be dynamic; it will constantly be upgraded during project implementation.