Second Meeting of the AWSS Action Plan Working Group

Revised based on Meeting Outcomes

UN-ESCWA
Beirut, Lebanon
25th June 2012
Participants:
Member

Meeting 25th June 4-6

PM

ACSAD
ESCWA

Mr. Wael Seif

Ms. Carol Chouchani
Cherfane
Mr. Fouad Abou Samra
Mr. Mohammad Ibrahim
Razzak

UNEP/ROWA
Iraq
AWC
GIZ
Arab centre for
water studies and
security
CEDARE
ICBA:

Mr. Raouf Darwish

Mr. Abdullah Droubi
Ms. Chahra Ksia

FAO/regional office,
Cairo

Mr. Faycel Chenini

Mr. Khaled Abou Zeid

Mr. Mohamed Amrani

Skype
confirmation/addres
s
seifwael1

mohammadibrahim19
56
could not participate
raouf.darwish
could not participate
kabuzeid
simo200018
Tel: +971 4 336 1148
faycel.chenini

Programme:
17:00 17:05

Welcome speech:
Mr. Wael Seif, Director of Water Resources
Department, ACSAD
Ms. Carol Chouchani Cherfane, Chief, Water
Resources Section, Sustainable Development and
productivity Division, ESCWA

17:05 17:15

Tour de table

17:15 17:30

Review of the meeting objectives - Wael Seif:

17:30 17:45

Main Objectives:
Overview of the action plan contents and assigned
tasks
Overview of the proposed format
Commitment of members
Assign tasks to FAO and ICBA
Agree on the deadlines
Introducing the new members: FAO and ICBA
1

17:45 18:00
18:00 18:10
18:10 18:15

Open discussion
Allocating tasks and final table of assignments
Wrap-up of the meeting

A. Overview of the action plan contents and assignments:

Arab Water Security Strategy Action Plan

Table of Contents*
(Draft, 22 March 2012)/ Revised 25 June 2013

I.

Background and Rationale (ACSAD)

II.

Objective (ACSAD)
A. Review objective of the Arab Water Security Strategy
B. Objective of the Action Plan
The objective of the action plan is to operationalize and structure
the implementation of the Arab Water Security Strategy (AWSS)

III.

Action Plan Axes for Action (Policies, Programs, Projects)*

A. Enhanced provision of updated information on the status
of water in the Arab Region (ACSAD)
1. Building a digital water database to follow water resources
development: Integrated Arab Water Information System
(ACSAD, CEDARE)
B. Improved implementation of IWRM (CEDARE)
1. Promoting the use of IWRM concepts (CEDARE, FAO)
2. Institutional and human capacity building (AWC, FAO)
3. Legislation and laws (CEDARE, FAO)
4. Awareness raising (ACSAD, CEDARE)
5. Public participation/private sector participation (AWC, FAO)
6. Water use efficiency (FAO, AWC, ICBA, CEDARE)
7. Non-conventional water (UNEP, ICBA, FAO)
8. Protection of coastal water resources (UNEP, CEDARE)
C. Strengthened scientific, technological and industrial base
(UNEP)
1. Development of scientific research and transfer and localization
of technology
D. Increased funding for water projects (AWC)
1. Ensuring funding for water projects (ACSAD, AWC)
2. Assisting countries to achieve the MDG goals (ESCWA, AWC,
CEDARE)
E. Enhanced capacity for climate change assessment and
adaptation (ESCWA)
1. Assessment of climate change impacts on water (ESCWA, GIZ,
ICBA)

2. Assessment of climate change adaptation measures (GIZ,

ESCWA, ICBA)
F. Established mechanisms for the protection of Arab water
rights in shared water resources (Center for Water Studies
& Arab Water Security)
1. Protection of water rights for Arab States (Center for Water
Studies & Arab Water Security, ESCWA)
IV.

Matrix (ACSAD)

* First institution listed serves as the lead agency for that section.

B. Overview of the proposed format:

Proposed Format for Each Expected Accomplishment Chapter
This section details the elements constituting the main part of the action
plan. An example chapter for Expected Accomplishment E (Enhanced
Capacity for Climate Change Impact and Vulnerability Assessment and
Adaptation) is presented in Annex 2.
Expected Accomplishment
The Action Plan is organised by the six Expected Accomplishments (A-F
above). Each of these will be presented in the form of a chapter, with the
associated Outputs and Activities.
Relevant Strategic Objectives
To ensure clarity, each Expected Accomplishment will be related to the
objectives of the Strategy.
Activity
Each Activity (A1, A2) will be presented with text outlining the problem to
be addressed and activities to be performed. Each activity has a number of
outputs
Output
Under each Activity, associated Outputs (A1.1, A1.2, etc.) will be described.
Text will present the problem to be addressed and tasks to be implemented.
Targets
Targets will be presented for each Output for the five-year
implementation period. Targets will adhere to SMART framework
(Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) to
facilitate monitoring and evaluation.
Implementation principles
The role of the Implementation Principles (Connection to Arab
Strategies, Public Consultation and Participation, and Partnerships) in
each Output will be presented.
Implementation modality
Each Output will have a section outlining the means by which the
Output will be implemented.
Institutional arrangements
The responsibilities of implementing partners will be described for
each Output.
Budget
Each Output will have an associated budget. The budget will
distinguish between funds already secured and funds to be raised.
These figures will be aggregated in the Matrix to provide an overview
of fund-raising needs.
4

Communication
The communication needs for each Output will be presented.
Risks
The risks for each Output will be documented.
Progress Markers
Progress markers for each year of the implementation period will be
presented for each Output to aid in monitoring and evaluation.
C. Commitment of members
All committee members should send their final text of contribution in English
to ACSAD by
1 September 2013. Deadline is to allow proper time
to review and assemble the whole text, review the preliminary consolidated
draft, and time for translation into Arabic prior to submission to AMWC
Secretariat.
A Third Meeting of the Task Force will be convened the second week of
September 2013 in Beirut (at UN-ESCWA) to discuss the inputs received and
support the finalization of the consolidated draft action plan.
Some members have already submitted to ACSAD the first or second draft
of their tasks, while the drafts submitted by others was received very late in
May and did not matching the agreed format.
AWC and CEDARE have recently communicated with ACSAD, but did not
send any contribution so far. Therefore, the table of assignments was sent to
all members and suggestions of contribution especially to items initially
assigned to AWC and CEDARE were asked for. AWC and CEDARE are again
invited to comment and send their suggestions and commitment.

D. Assign tasks to FAO and ICBA

Table of contents was updated to reflect contributions to be provided
by FAO and ICBA
E. Agree on deadlines:
I would like to urge you to submit your assignments within two months from
now to allow time for online discussion before we meet. All members will be
asked to submit an English version of their final text by 1/9/2013 to allow
ACSAD time to hand the draft to the technical secretariat of LAS on
30/09/2013.
The plan is as following:
Ref.

Jun

All final text are sent to ACSAD (in

5

Jul

Au
g

Se
p

Oc
t

No
v

De
c

English)
Compiling, review harmonisation,
etc.
Submission to the TS of AMWC of
LAS
Receiving comments from the Arab
Countries
Preparing the final draft and
incorporating comments and
adjustments
Submission to the TS of AMWC
A meeting of the working group will be convened in early September to
discuss the received texts, as well as the final shape of the Action Plan
document.

Mail list:

PLEASE check!

Organizat
ion

Main person to contact

Copies to

ACSAD

Dr. Wael Seif

"Youssef Marai"
<y.marai59@gmail.com>

wael.seif@gmail.com

GIZ

"Bartels, Matthias GIZ EG"

<matthias.bartels@giz.de
>

"Eman Serawan"
<eserawan@gmail.com>,
"Lichtenthaeler, Gerhard
GIZ EG"
<gerhard.lichtenthaeler@
giz.de>, "Abdullah Droubi"
<abdulah.droubi@gmail.c
om>,
"Guy Jobbins"
<guy@tayridge.com>

UNEP/ROW
A

"Fouad Abousamra"
<fouad.abousamra@unep.
org>,

Add if any

Iraq

"mohammad razzak"
<moha19562003@yahoo.c
om>,

Add if any

TS of
AWMC

Dr. Djamael Djaballah

envsusdev.dept@las.int,
inasmostafa@hotmail.com,
yasmin_teima@hotmail.co
m,

djamel.djaballah@las.int

AWC

"Dr Hussein"
<hielatfy@arabwatercounc
il.org>,

ESCWA

"Carol Chouchani
Cherfane"
<chouchanicherfane@un.o
rg>,

Arab
centre for
water
studies
and

"Chahra"
<cofws@yahoo.com>,

<environment.dept@las.in
t>
safwat@arabwatercouncil.
org, raoufdarwish@dceltd.com
"Tarek Sadek"
<sadekt@un.org>,
Mohamed Al-Hamdi
<Al-hamdi@un.org>
Add if any

security
CEDARE

10

ICBA

11

FAO/NENA,
Cairo

Dr. Kaled Abou Zeid

<kabuzeid@cedare.org>,
Dr. Mohamed Amrani
m.amrani@biosaline.org.ae
Dr. Faycel Chenini
Faycel.chenini@fao.org
Faycel.chenini@yahoo.com

kabuzeid@cedare.int,
Dr. Khalil Ahmed Ammar
kaa@biosaline.org.ae
Add if any