From the 23 until the 27th of September FAO organized a workshop in the framework of the Regional Water Scarcity Initiative in the Near East, a collaborative strategy and partnership to address the water-food security nexus.

The Initiative comes in support of FAO Member Countries in identifying priority areas of action in agriculture water management that can significantly contribute to boosting agriculture productivity, improving food security and using water resources in a more sustainable way.

The purpose of the workshop was to launch the National Assessment in pilot countries of the Initiative (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Oman and Yemen). Participant’s expertise and background cover the fields of agriculture, water, and economics. The workshop was organized around the three pillars of the methodology) the rapid water accounting ;ii) the food supply cost curve approach; iii) the knowledge gap analysis. Participants were exposed to the methodologies and applied them in the context of their countries.

As part of the next steps the participants will organize national consultation workshops. The pilot Countries will work in particular on an analysis of water use efficiency, in particular the potential savings in irrigation; Assessing constraints and barriers to agricultural water productivity, and securing food supply for main commodities by 2020, among several other topics.

The results - expected by December - should feed into the regional strategy.