National training workshop to support gender equality and women’s empowerment in Libya

Libya, 13–14 June 2023: The Ministry of Water Resources in Tripoli – Libya with the support of FAO office for Libya organized a national workshop training on gender equality and women’s empowerment. This course targets national and local female stakeholders working in the fields of water, agriculture, GIS, Remote sensing, and meteorology. The national partners selected the team members taking into account the representation from the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the Libyan Center for Remote Sensing and Space Science, the National Meteorological Center, and Universities.

This training was designed within the Strategic Framework of FAO to support Gender equality and women’s empowerment. It also aligns with the capacity development program and aims to support gender balance and provide through this session an opportunity for these selected women to fully utilize the WaPOR capabilities.  It is also conducted as part of the two FAO projects : “Monitoring, evaluation and rationalization of water use for agriculture sector in Libya” funded by Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and the  “Evaluation of irrigation infrastructure, crop mapping and estimation of agricultural water use in Libya” funded by African Development Bank (AfDB). The overall aim is to strengthen national capacities to monitor water consumption and productivity through remote sensing and to adopt effective options for increasing water productivity in Fezzan region, as a pilot to be scaled up throughout the country and to improve knowledge on the irrigation infrastructure damages and the impact on water efficiency. Moreover, food security in Libya, particularly in the Fezzan region, will be strengthened through more performant and efficient use of agricultural water.

 Ms. Thuraya Juma Mohammed, Mrs. Maryam Mzoghi Al-Seddik, and Ms. Asma Othman Mabrouk provided different technical modules. The three female trainers alternate introductions on theoretical and methodological approaches by introducing the WaPOR components and layers concepts, database components, and methodology. A session was dedicated to making revisions on the basis of the water balance.

 Participants acquired skills and competencies in data download from the WaPOR portal and data analysis in the WaPOR portal e.g., monitoring actual and reference evapotranspiration at different scales (point, polygon, raster). The content of the training allowed practical exercises related to using WaPOR for estimating water consumption and assessing irrigation performance. Analyze actual evapotranspiration using QGIS model builder for the WaPOR data for the Libyan project sites.