The NENA region is the world’s most water-insecure region with water scarcity growing and water quality deteriorating. The demand for fresh water is continuously on the rise, driven by a range of factors, such as population growth, increasing food demand, changes in dietary patterns towards more animal-based proteins, urbanization, and overall socio-economic development. At the same time, the availability of fresh water is continuously declining due to reduced and variable rainfalls, inefficient water use and water quality degradation.

The scarcity and degradation of natural resources – whether land, water and biodiversity resources – are among the most important risks to food security, nutrition and well-being in the region. Access to water services remains poor in rural areas, which affects equitable and inclusive human development and undermines the resilience of rural communities. Population growth and climate change further increase the vulnerability of the NENA region and exacerbate productivity losses and degradation of natural resources.

Agriculture, which remains a vital social and economic sector in most NENA countries, is using 85 percent of available fresh water resources in the region and is the sector suffering most from water scarcity, with major consequences for food security and the rural economy. Rural communities suffer subsequent effects on their health, nutrition and future mental and physical development, with the most marginalized communities experiencing the greatest impacts.

Arab countries have made progress in the management and efficient use of water resources, but these improvements are not proportionate with the real dimension of the challenge. Unless water is managed sustainably, efficiently and equitably, the NENA region will struggle to make progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on poverty reduction (SDG 1), food security ( SDG 2), water and sanitation for all (SDG 6) and climate action (SDG 13).

The Water Scarcity Initiative: a partnership to strengthen water resource planning and management in the NENA region

In order to help NENA countries address food and water security challenges, FAO RNE and its partners established the Water Scarcity Initiative (WSI) during the first edition of the NENA Land and Water Days, held in Amman, Jordan in December 2013. The Regional Initiative was created on the premise that water and food security involves complex and overlapping multi-sector and multi-stakeholder forms of decision-making. Drawing on this, partners acknowledged that there was a strong advantage to strengthen coordination and build partnerships to respond to water scarcity in the region.

FAO RNE and a number of partners signed a "Partnership Pledge" expressing their “strong interest and willingness to work together, drawing on [their] collective knowledge and resources, in an effective, action-oriented and result-based Regional Partnership, to support the implementation of relevant collaborative strategies”, such as the Arab Strategy for Water Security (2010-2030) and the Strategy for Sustainable Arab Agricultural Development (2005-2025) . The Regional Initiative was endorsed by the ministers of agriculture at the 32nd session of FAO Regional Conference for the Near East in February 2014 in Rome and by the Arab Ministerial Water Council of the League of Arab States in May 2015.

The Water Scarcity Initiative in practice: