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The EU Water Initiative National Policy Dialogues in Armenia & Moldova Pierre Hecq UNDP Water-CoP Meeting Almaty, 25-26 October 2007. EUWI – Water for life. Initiative from EU Member States & European Commission Contribute to the achievement of MDGs and WSSD targets
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The EU Water InitiativeNational Policy Dialogues in Armenia & Moldova Pierre Hecq UNDP Water-CoP MeetingAlmaty, 25-26 October 2007
EUWI – Water for life Initiative from EU Member States & European Commission • Contribute to the achievement of MDGs and WSSD targets • Water Supply and Sanitation • Integrated Water Resources Management • Ensure a balance of the human water needs with those of the environment and contribute to halting or reversing the loss of environmental resources
Approach • Actions to meet the water and sanitation MDGs • Partnership approach • involve all parties concerned through multistakeholder process (EU, partner countries, international organisations, NGOs, private sector, IFIs and other donors etc) • 4 Regional components (Africa, EECCA, Mediterranean, Latin America) • Process – No direct financial support
National Policy Dialogue - Concept • Major instrument within the EUWI, including the EUWI-EECCA Component… • Evolving on the basis of lessons learned • 1 National Key Partner + 1 Strategic Partner + Relevant Stakeholders • The Strategic Partner: EU Member State, non-EU Member State or international organisation (one for each NPD) • Demand driven
NPD - Global objective • To contribute to the achievement of the water related MDGs and IWRM targets in the EECCA region, 5 EUWI objectives and specific EUWI-EECCA Component objectives
NPD - Specific objective • To initiate joint activities • regarding WSS, Financing and IWRM • concentrating upon a certain issue (e.g. water quality standards, monitoring or river basin management) • aimed at improving the regulatory and administrative framework in the EECCA region, • thereby contributing to the development of road maps to the water-related MDGs and IWRM targets
NPD - Outputs • Implemented policy packages (i.e. a coherent mix of policy tools, such as new laws, regulations, standards, procedures, charges and concession arrangements)… • … each addressing a certain issue
NPD - Selection criteria Commitment of the EECCA country (or countries) in question • Capability of Strategic Partner • Compliance with overall objective and specific objective • Relevance for the EECCA region as a whole
NPD - What's in it for the EECCA countries? • Easy access to relevant experts in the EU, IFIs and international organisations • Easy access to best practices from the new EU Member States, such as Lithuania • Easy access to best practices from the EECCA region • Easy access to useful tools (e.g. for environmental financing, monitoring or water quality standards)
Building Patnerships EUWI-EECCA & OECD EAP TF + UNECEA potential for cooperation! • Overlap (in the WSS & IWRM sectors): • Topics addressed and activities • Participants • Obvious benefits from joining forces
In practice?Working together Reinforce synergies between WSS & IWRM • Improve the coherence of EU cooperation efforts on water in the region • Provide a one-stop-shop for assistance on water in EECCA • EAP TF support on WSS aspects • UNECE support on IWRM
Benefits • NPDs under EUWI: dissemination of best practices & approaches from EAP TF and UNECE • Opportunity to build on OECD and UNECE work in several EECCA countries • Better use of financial resources: meetings & travels
Steering Committees Major points of discussions • How to introduce the cost recovery principle? • What is the threshold of water charges as a share of household incomes - in average and by household income groups? 5%? • What are the costs of improving monitoring?
How to develop specially designed social protection measures? • How to appoint River Basin Councils? • How to incorporate the water strategy into the budget? • How to improve cooperation between different water management authorities? • … and, hopefully, not only discussions
Steps involved in preparing a NPD • Step 1: Submission of official request by a potential key stakeholder • Possible key stakeholder: Ministry of Environment, State Committee on Water Resources • Step 2: Identification of solid Strategic Partner • Possible solid Strategic Partners in CA: UNDP, GWP, OECD/EAP Task Force and UNECE • Step 3: Development of draft Organisation & Methodology • 5-10 pages
Step 4: Finalisation of Organisation and Methodology and conclusion of firm agreements with Strategic Partners • Step 5: Drafting of Mission Preparation Note by the identified Strategic Partner • 5 pages • Step 6: Start-up mission - and Memorandum of Understanding • Step 7: Call-in of 1st meeting of the Steering Committee overseeing the NPD
The NPDs – Key Elements (1) • The sequence of activities depends: • on countries’ past achievements • the urgency of tasks ahead • Environmental Performance Reviews (OECD, UNECE), UNDP country papers, GWP analysis and the UNECE Assessment of the Status of Transboundary Waters are valuable sources of inspiration • Encourage ownership from all actors
The NPDs – Key Elements (2) • The NPD process is a dialogue and not a technical project; it should however facilitate developing projects that address jointly identified problems • Benefits from one to other EECCA countries. From a wide rage of IWRM issues, each country should address a specific sub-set of issues, preferably not to be repeated in other countries.