SUMMARY REPORT
SECOND EXPERT
CONSULTATION
ON
NATIONAL WATER POLICY REFORM IN THE NEAR
EAST
RNE, Cairo, 24-25 November 1997
The participants in the consultation included senior water sector policy experts from Cyprus, Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen; observers from the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD), the Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE), the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and Winrock International; representatives from the Ministry of Water Resources and Public Works (MWRPW) of Egypt; and FAO staff from the FAO Regional Office for the Near East, Cairo, and FAO HQ, Rome. The list of participants is given as Appendix 1.
The objectives of the expert consultation were:
to identify the principal issues involved in managing water resources at the national level, for the guidance of policy-makers, including water security and its importance for food security;
to assess evolution and change in national and regional water sector policy;
to identify and analyze major critical current and longer-term constraints to national and regional water policy reform; and
to identify and recommend strategic choices in the Region.
The programme of the consultation included initial presentations on linkages between macro- and micro-economics and water policy (see Appendix 2) and a keynote paper on management of water scarcity in relation to regional cooperation (see Appendix 3). The principal materials for the meeting were the presentations of eight country papers from the participating countries (attached as Appendixes 4 to 11), including from Pakistan, where the expert had been unable to attend the meeting in person. AOAD also presented a paper on AOAD’s Strategies in Relation to Water Policy Reform in the Arab Region.
Issues and measures for water policy review and reform at national level and the options for regional cooperation were discussed in the two technical sessions of the meeting.
