FAO launches Water Scarcity Initiative to achieve water and food security in NENA region

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has launched today the Water Scarcity Initiative (WSI) in the Near East and North Africa Region, which has been collectively developed and will be implemented jointly with five international core partners, namely, ESCWA, ICARDA, ICBA, IWMI and UNICEF.

“Water is a foundational component of agrifood systems, yet it is the number one limiting factor for agriculture in the Near East and North Africa region. To ensure the efficient management of limited water resources, it is essential to develop a thorough comprehension and application of the key concepts of productivity, efficiency and sustainability to properly assess actual water use and potential water savings within integrated water resources management,” said Abdulhakim Elwaer, Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

“The Water Scarcity Initiative aims to create a partnership platform to enhance coordination and collaboration among various regional stakeholders in the pursuit of achieving water and food security in the region,” he added.  

The launch of the multi-partner initiative came on the sidelines of COP28 realizing the “Partnership Pledge” that was signed by 17 partner organizations working on water in the region during the launch of the WSI back in 2013. In the pledge, partners declared 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”.  

This initiative is made possible through the generous donations of USD 11 million from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and another USD 11 million from The Netherlands. The initiative is earmarked at a cost of USD 30 million cost.

Through WSI, partner organizations will work towards water security by focusing on various issues including, but not limited to, water accounting, irrigation efficiency and productivity, governance and cross-sector policy coherence, non-conventional water use, water-energy-food nexus, and data deficiency. The WSI aims to build critical mass of expertise, knowledge and tools that allows countries of the region to face the challenges towards achieving sustainable development.

The initiative’s development was also coordinated with the regional intergovernmental processes on water and agriculture within the League of Arab States to address common challenges facing countries of the region, thus targeting both national and regional levels.

The focus of the initiative on the national level aims to examine potential approaches for enhanced water planning, productivity, and management at pilot or catchment scale, thus providing evidence for upscaling nationally while at the same time informing policy development across sectors at both national and regional levels. At the regional level, opportunities for cross country exchange of national achievements will be identified and utilized. While the proposed programme targets the whole region, field activities will be implemented in multiple countries, dictated by their geographical, socioeconomic, environmental, and political settings.