Global Water Partnership-Mediterranean

Aiming for a water-secure Mediterranean, GWP-Med promotes action, demo application and knowledge exchange on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and the sustainable use of water resources in the region. GWP-Med facilitates a multi-stakeholder platform that brings together 10 major regional networks of different water disciplines (government, river basins, local authorities, professionals, NGOs, research institutes, irrigators, etc) and over 90 other institutions and organisations from both EU and non-EU countries.

Working at regional, national, local and transboundary level, GWP-Med provides technical support to policy making; facilitates dialogue on water security and IWRM issues; and implements demonstration actions. Themes addressed include a range of aspects of governance for IWRM; water financing including private sector participation; adaptation to climate vulnerability and change; river basin/transboundary water management; joint IWRM/Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) planning; Non Conventional Water Resources Management - including at Urban level; water demand management; water-food-energy-environment nexus; integrated groundwater management; stakeholders participation; education; capacity building; and networking of targeted groups including decision makers, parliamentarians and the media. Furthermore, GWP-Med addresses gender, equity, youth and poverty as cross-cutting issues.

Following GWP modalities, GWP-Med is hosted and legaly represented by the Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development (MIO-ECSDE), a non-profit civil society organisation with Mediterranean scope, under the Greek Law. A Host Institute Agreement governs modalities.

The GWP-Med Secretariat extends its human resources in Athens, Beirut, Ohrid, Podgorica, Pristina, Tirana and Tunis.



Vision and Mission
The Global Water Partnership-Mediterranean envisions a water secure world. Its mission is to advance integrated water resources management at all levels for sustainable and inclusive growth in the Mediterranean countries.

Our goal is to promote action and exchange knowledge on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) with the aim to to help Mediterranean countries to connect water resources planning and operations at different scales (regional, transboundary, national, basin and local), in order to achieve coherence and bring about solutions that contribute to the sustainable use of water resources as means towards sustainable growth. In order to achieve this goal, GWP-Med’s role acts as a broker, a catalyst, a facilitator and an advocacy organisation.

In order achieve these goals, GWP-Med:

· Facilitates a multi-stakeholder regional water partnership across the Mediterranean basin, bringing together major Mediterranean networks of different water disciplines (government, river basins, local authorities, professionals, NGOs, research institutes, irrigators, etc) and over eighty (85) other competent organisations, institutions and companies of private sector.
· Seeks and facilitates multi-stakeholder engagement and donors’ support for dialogue and action to promote IWRM at national and regional levels.
· Makes the principles of sustainable water use and IWRM widely known, recognised and applied by countries and all other stakeholders in the Mediterranean, through appropriate mechanisms of sharing information and experience.
· Supports exemplary actions at local, national and regional level that demonstrate the value, applicability and positive impact of the above principles.


DRIN CORDA

Drin Coordinated Action

"The ultimate goal of the work in the Drin Basin is to reach a point in the future where the scale of management lifts from single water bodies to the hydrological interconnected system of the Drin Basin, eventually leading from the sharing of waters among Riparians and conflicting uses, to the sharing of benefits in an area physically, culturally and historically interconnected."

Coordinated action at the Drin Basin level has been absent until the development of the Shared Vision for the sustainable management of the Basin and the signing of a related Memorandum of Understanding (Drin MoU) in 2011.

The establishment of cooperation
The discussions on an enhanced cooperation among the Riparians for the management of the Drin Basin started in 2006. The “Consultation Meeting on Integrated Management of the extended Drin River Basin” held on 24 November 2008, in Tirana, was a stepping stone in this regard.

The Drin Dialogue Process
An outcome of that meeting was the decision for the initiation of the “Drin Dialogue”, a structured multi-stakeholder process at both national and transboundary level. The Dialogue was initiated on 1 December 2009 and resulted in the development of the Shared Vision among the Drin Riparians.

The Drin Memorandum of Understanding
The Shared Vision became the objective of the Memorandum of Understanding for the Management of the Extended Transboundary Drin Basin (Drin MoU) signed by the Ministers responsible for water resources and environmental management and high level representatives of the Riparians, in Tirana, Albania, on 25 November 2011. The meeting for the signing of the Drin MoU concluded the Drin Dialogue.

The Drin MoU implementation
Succeeding the Drin Dialogue, a process called the “Drin CORDA” - Drin Coordinated Action - was put in place for the implementation of the Drin MoU. It includes an institutional structure to guide the cooperation process, and an Action Plan to set the process into operation.

The GEF Drin Project
A Project financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and executed by the Global Water Partnership (GWP) through GWP-Mediterranean (GWP-Med) in cooperation with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) supports the realization of the Drin CORDA and the implementation of the Drin MoU; GWP-Med is responsible for the realization of the Project. The Drin Core Group is the Steering Committee (SC) of the Project.

Stakeholder involvement
Stakeholders have been central in the establishment of coordinated action in the Drin Basin.


Project Implementation Strategy
The implementation of the GEF Drin Project will unfold along the following lines of action:

1. The development of a Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) to identify key management issues and their underlying causes;

2. The preparation of a Strategic Action Plan (SAP) that will include a set of agreed responses by the Riparians addressing the identified issues and their causes.

· A set of complementary activities will be developed in order to facilitate the beneficiary Riparians and the Drin Core Group in the implementation of the agreed actions under the SAP. These activities will include among others the development of tools, such as the Information Management System, the enhancement of capacities of institutions and stakeholders in several critical fields etc.

· The project will strive to facilitate the capitalization of management innovations through five demonstration activities, each one tested in different areas and at different scales:

1. Integrated Basin Management Planning in the Lake Ohrid sub-basin;

2. Wastewater treatment options in the Shkodra city area;

3. Nutrients management in the Montenegrin part of Lake Skadar;

4. Flood management across the Drin Basin;

5. Operation of a transboundary monitoring system in the Shkoder/Skadar and Buna/Bojana areas in Albania and Montenegro.