The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) is joining partner International Organizations and several of its Member States at the UN 2023 Water Conference to alert on the water crisis the Mediterranean region faces, and the need for better water finance and financial sustainability of water management. To build the capacity of youth whilst tackling the challenges of water in the Mediterranean region, the UfM has developed a new Water and Youth Engagement Strategy. UfM supported projects such as the “Integrated Programme for the Protection of Lake Bizerte against Pollution” or “Smart DESERT” seek to alleviate extreme scarcity of water for… read more
14 March 2023, Brussels. The 13th meeting of the UfM Working Group on Blue Economy took place on the 14th of March at the in Brussels, bringing together the UfM Focal Points on Blue Economy, relevant regional stakeholders, international financial institutions and donors. The event focused on the progress made regarding the Roadmap for the implementation of the 2nd UfM Ministerial Declaration on Sustainable Blue Economy (SBE), as well as to present the Blue Mediterranean Partnership for potential expansion to the wider Mediterranean. The meeting was an opportunity to further strengthen the regional dialogue based on concrete advancements at regional and national level, to maximise the existing resources and collaboration, as well as producing an… read more
8 March 2023. To celebrate the International Women’s Day, the UfM seeks to recognise the paramount role of women in the water sector, and highlight the need to ensure that the women’s role is at the heart of the UfM priorities and in promoting initiatives supporting women in the Mediterranean region and beyond. Gender equality is key to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As “being off the track to achieve the SDGs by 2030” is a looming reality, the UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) launched a Call for Action (CfA) to accelerate the achievement of gender equality… read more
7 March 2023, Barcelona – UfM hosted on 7 March 2023 the webinar on the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF): Outcomes, follow up and way forward”, as a follow-up on the COP15 Biodiversity, which took place in December 2022 in Montreal as shared international roadmap to tackle the ecological crisis and towards a more nature-positive world. The webinar stressed the need to continue pooling technical, human and financial resources; ensuring coordination and converge efforts to reach the 30×30 target, which calls for 30% of the world’s terrestrial, inland water, and of coastal and marine areas, to be in effective protection… read more
20-21 February 2023, Dubai –The Union for the Mediterranean, together with the Spanish Agency for Cooperation, AECID, have organised a key session in the framework of the Arab Water Convention, the Interactive Session 4 on Design Thinking Challenge (Future Lab). In the event, spokespersons have pitched new and innovative, out-of-the box ideas that could help make non-conventional water resources in the region more financially attractive. The Arab Water Council supported by the League of Arab States and the Union for the Mediterranean have organized its Arab Water Convention, dedicated this year to address the use of Non-Conventional Water Resources (NCWR) as… read more
16-17 February 2023, Barcelona – The UfM Water Task Forces, Water, Environment, Food and Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus, Water Access, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH), Water, Employment and Migration (WEM) Nexus and Water Climate Change Actions (WCCA) meeting took place on 16 and 17 February 2023 in the Union for the Mediterranean premises in Barcelona. The meeting brought together the leaders of the task forces, strategic partners and UfM countries representatives as well as civil society in order to reflect on the Biannual Work Plans 2023-2024, and next steps towards meeting the objectives determined by the UfM Ministerial Declaration on Water (Malta, April 2017). It… read more
UfM holds an official visit to new Member State, North Macedonia, to discuss regional environmental challenges and potential cooperation initiatives. 31 January 2023, Skopje. Following the entrance of the Republic of North Macedonia into the Union for the Mediterranean last November, UfM Deputy Secretary General in charge of Water, Environment and Blue Economy, Almotaz Abadi, paid an official visit to the new Member State to meet with the Minister of Environment and Physical Planning, Naser Nuredini and the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water, Abdylshyqr Abedini, in Skopje. The accession of the Balkan country comes at a moment of great need… read more
24-25 January 2023, Athens. The Plan of Action for a Model Mediterranean Sea by 2030 (PAMEx) held its first Steering Committee meeting on 24-25 January 2023 in Athens, Greece with the participation of UfM Deputy Secretary General in charge of Water, Environment and Blue Economy, Almotaz Abadi and UfM Senior Expert, Marie-Claire Boillot. In the meeting, partners followed up on the implementation of the 20 concrete actions that PAMEx encompasses, including governance matters and the functioning of the Local Investment Finance Facility (PLIFF) —the innovative financial mechanism created to underpin the implementation of PAMEx—. The Steering Committee meeting also reviewed… read more
EU-UfM High Level Conference on strengthening water finance and investment policies under climate change takes place in Cairo (Egypt) as a prelude to COP-27. The EU and the Union for the Mediterranean are committed to supporting UfM countries in developing and strengthening their water investment and finance policies. There is a need to act on exploring, advancing and implementing the means of leveraging finances, developing and transferring technology and building capacities on national and regional levels. Cairo, 17 October 2022 – As water is the sector most heavily hit by climate change in the Mediterranean region, governments need to address some… read more
19 September 2022 – The UfM Water Task Forces, Water Access, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH), and Water Climate Change Actions (WCCA), took place during the IME’s Regional Symposium “Our Mediterranean: water challenges and regional priorities for 2050” on 19-20 September 2022 under a hybrid format from Valencia, Spain. Bringing together country representatives and regional stakeholders of the UfM region. Both meetings came as a result of the continuous endeavours of the UfM towards its Member states to help them bringing about decisive actions to meet their environmental challenges and tackle climate change in the Mediterranean. Moreover, they came following the UfM member states ‘request… read more
