WaPOR 2 inception workshop in Algeria

On November 24th, a WaPOR phase 2 inception workshop was held in Alger, Algeria, welcoming 36 in-person participants from a wide range of backgrounds and institutions: the ministry of agriculture and rural development with the particular presence, among others, of the directorate for the development of arid and semi-arid zones, the chamber of agriculture, the ministry of water resources and the hydrological security, the national office for irrigation and drainage, among others including research and academic institutions. The workshop was held in French in a hybrid format with most participants gathered in Alger and a few others, including the WaPOR team joining virtually. 

The workshop was opened with remarks by Ms. Irina Buttoud, the FAO representative in Algeria, who welcomed the participants and highlighted the importance of each of their inputs in the future implementation of the project. She also spoke of the technical support that the attendees could expect of the project as it would help the country advance towards the Sustainable Development Goals. In this remark she touches upon one of the 3 components of the WaPOR phase 2 project which is capacity building, whereby the project and its partners will work hand in hand with stakeholders at different levels to enable the use of the WaPOR database for practical field applications meant to increase land and water productivity, as well applications as the policy and water management level. The participants, when asked about the capacity building and training needs that they and their respective institutions might have in relation to the use of WaPOR data spoke of: 

• training and guidance at three levels: decisional, technical and operational, the later level referring to the training of farmers in terms of irrigation management
• the elaboration and use of scripts to automate data processing
• modelling and data interpretation 
• use of WaPOR data and integration with other complementary data 

The workshop was a success in terms of attendance but also in regards to the wealth of information that was gathered during the discussions sessions where the needs and priorities in Algeria were the primary lens through which were discussed the ways in which the WaPOR project might be implemented in the country. In fact, the second phase of WaPOR is more demand-driven than the first, and the outputs of the inception workshop are a crucial element in the elaboration of a project implementation plan.