First Regional Conference of the Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector Project

Athens, 28-30 October 2014

The First Regional Conference of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) labelled project Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector, organized in cooperation with the European Union funded Sustainable Water Integrated Management – Support Mechanism (SWIM-SM) project, will take place on 28-30 October in Athens, Greece.

The Conference aims to engage targeted stakeholders in a constructive policy dialogue on the governance-financing nexus within the Mediterranean water sector, as well as to promote the exchange of experiences and best practices. Over the course of two days, participants will take stock of the outcomes from the Water Policy Dialogues conducted in Jordan and Tunisia during the project’s first year (2013-2014) and will discuss the way forward for the second year. Moreover, the Conference will benefit from completed and related work in the field through the SWIM programme, particularly in view of the programme’s completion (Dec. 2014), and will consider the potential next phase of work.

The Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector project (mid 2013 – mid 2016) was officially labelled in July 2012 and launched on 28-29 May 2013 at the UfM headquarters in Barcelona, Spain. It is implemented jointly by the Global Water Partnership-Mediterranean (GWP-Med) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with the support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and to date by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the GEF MedPartnership programme in specific national components.

The SWIM Programme (2010-2014) is a Regional Technical Assistance Programme by the European Commission aiming to contribute to the extensive dissemination and effective implementation of sustainable water management policies and practices in the South-Eastern Mediterranean Region.