Euwi - European Water Initiative

The EU Water Initiative (EUWI) recently highlighted some of its main achievements from the last 12 months to an international audience of some 2,000+ water sector professionals attending World Water Week (WWW) in Stockholm from 21 – 26 August. In particular, some of the EUWI’s successes e.g. strengthening political commitment to support the water sector in EU Member States and in developing countries, promoting water governance and capacity building, gained specific mention.

During the EUWI Multi-Stakeholder Forum on 25 August representatives of the former EU Hungarian Presidency, the current EU Polish Presidency, the Commission and various members of EUWI Working Groups (WG) highlighted the recent EU policy developments. They also drew attention to the success of National Policy Dialogues that had taken place in the Eastern Europe Caucuses and Central Asia (EECCA) and MED regions and how these had contributed to the adoption of trans-boundary integrated water resources management and integrated coastal zone management.

They also highlighted EUWI’s significant contributions to capacity building globally in the water sector, including the organisation of international fora and conferences for exchange of experience and policy dialogue on water sector related issues as well as specific training events. Particular mention was made of the Latin America region where water related training courses were held in 19 countries as well as training events related to water sector research management and financing organised by the thematic WGs.

In the last year EUWI regional and thematic WGs have also produced a number of publications and papers that have contributed to understanding of specific issues in the wider water sector. On 24 August a press launch was held at the EUWI exhibition stand to promote some recent publications of the EUWI Africa WG. Hard copies of a wide range of EUWI publications as well as the EUWI Annual Report were picked up by delegates from the EUWI exhibition stand throughout WWW.

Examples of recent EUWI publications and papers include:

• Strategy for Water in the Mediterranean 
• Financing Water and Sanitation 
• Evaluation of research outcomes in Water for Development 
• Mapping EU support for sanitation in Africa

A significant part of the Multi-Stakeholder Forum was dedicated to the on-going process for the development of a new thematic strategy for the EUWI and presenting and reviewing the intermediate results in the development of the new Strategy Framework. Feedback from the major stakeholders was obtained through Round Table discussions and through an Expert Panel debate. The main topics discussed were the revitalization of the EUWI, the niche of the EUWI, the theme of Growth & Development and the accompanying measures for a revitalized EUWI.

The above mentioned publications and the full report of the MSF session at WWW (including the presentations on the provisional strategy framework of the EUWI) will be available as downloads from the EUWI website at www.euwi.net. Hard copies of the launched publications are available on request by sending an email via the EUWI website.