The 1st Arab Water Forum in Riyadh: WaDImena and partners participation

During the period from 16 to 19 November, the 1^st AWF was held at the King Fahd Cultural Centre in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , in conjunction with two other big events; the 3^rd International Conference on Water Resources and Arid Environments, and the awards ceremony of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water. The Arab Water Council (AWC) is set to organize Arab Water Forums (AWF) every three years prior to the World Water Forums to become the most important inclusive water-related event at the regional level.

The objective of the AWFs is to mobilize all water stakeholders in the region, to identify priorities of water-related issues and define solutions that can successfully address regional and country specific water challenges. The AWF comes only four months before the 5^th World Water Forum (WWF5) that will be held in Istanbul on 16-22 March 09 with the main theme "Bridging Divides for Water". Hence, the AWF focussed on presenting and discussing the progress of the MENA/Arab Region's preparatory processes towards the WWF5, for which the AWC acts as the regional coordinator. The AWF in Riyadh comes as a step in the road to Istanbul.

WaDImena was involved in the preparations for the AWF, and has supported and contributed to the Forum as follows:

§         WaDImena organized a Water Demand Management (WDM) day where country experiences were shared and participants engaged in debates on the WDM critical issues and the way forward were very fruitful.
§         WaDImena supported six research team leaders of its funded applied research and pilot projects who presented the progress and findings of their projects through a poster session.
§         Dr. Hammou Laamrani, WaDImena project Coordinator, reported on the work done in the preparation of chapter 3 "Bridging the divides between the rich and the poor" of the MENA/Arab regional document.
§         Dr. Hammou also provided input to the different chapters of the regional document that will be presented at the WWF5, and also to the thematic process on theme 4 "Governance and Management". He also participated in developing the key messages that will be raised in the recommendations of the MENA/Arab Region to the Ministerial Declaration. 

This effort builds on the WaDImena's continues contributions to the MENA/Arab Region preparatory process of the WWF5. The WWF5 preparation consists of thematic, regional and political processes which are integrated during the development of the Forum. The regional processes will produce regional documents that are fed by and that will feed the thematic and political preparatory processes and the discussions in the Forum. 

WaDImena was -and still is- involved extensively in the MENA/Arab Region's preparatory process through providing significant technical and political input during preparatory meetings, engaging in the Forum blog and through e-mail exchanges. Dr. Hammou is one of 26 members in the regional consortium responsible for the region's contribution to the Forum. He is the lead author of chapter 3 of the regional report "Bridging the gap between the poor and the rich", which will be presented by the region at the Forum. He also participated in the series of regional preparatory meetings and events held during the past year, including the WWF5 Topic Coordination Meeting held in Istanbul in February 2008. WaDImena was able to engage in topic papers coordination in theme four on "Governance and Management" and contribute to the topic agenda through two topic coordination groups. Hammou had also participated in two preparatory meeting organized by the AWC in Egypt in March and June 2008. Through synergies with key partners in MENA and compilation of necessary information, WaDImena was able to facilitate ideas for IDRC and WaDImena's effective participation at the WWF5.  In Stockholm , August 2008, and in Montpellier , September 2008, potential collaboration on the way to Istanbul WWF5 were discussed with key players and Forum organizers.

Access WaDImena presentations and research project posters presented at the AWF