The EU Water Initiative and its research component

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The EU Water Initiative and its research component
Marialuisa Tamborra European Commission - DG
Research International Cooperation Marialuisa.Tamb
orra_at_ec.europa.eu
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Introducing the EU Water initiative Water for
life

• EU initiative launched at the WSSD (2002)in
  Johannesburg
• Contributing to MDG and WSSD on water
• Halve by 2015 the proportion of people without
  access to safe drinking water and basic
  sanitation
• develop Integrated Water manag. and efficiency
  plans.
• EUWI at present under review

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EUWI Objectives

• Reinforcing political committment towards action
  and innovation-oriented partnership
• Promoting improved water governance, capacity
  building awareness
• Promoting improved efficiency effectiveness of
  water management through multi-stakeholder
  dialogue
• Strengthening cooperation through promoting river
  basin approaches in national and transboundary
  waters
• Identifying additional financing resources to
  ensure sustainable financing

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EUWI structure

• Governing bodies
• Secretariat (Commission DGs),
• Steering Group and
• Multi-stakeholder Forum
• Regional components/WGs
• Africa,
• EECCA,
• Latin America,
• Mediterranean
• Horizontal components/WGs
• Research,
• Finance,
• Monitoring

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Research in Integrated Water Resources Management
(IWRM)

• The EU Water initiative (EUWI) has given boost to
  IWRM research and its global dimension, with FP6
  introducing topics in its calls for proposals
  since 2002 in support of EUWI and the MDGs.
• IN FP5 IWRM research involving international
  cooperation was carried out essentially under
  INCO.
• In FP6 funding was available both under INCO
  priority Global Change Ecosystems with a
  budget of 130Mio
• IN FP7 this area of research will be carried out
  mainly under the Environment Theme (areas
  Sustainable Management of Resources and also
  Environmental Technologies)
• Possible contribution from Health Theme Food,
  Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnologies theme.

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Examples of ongoing RTD activities with expected
lasting impact

• Coordinating Member States and EU Research
  Programmes in Water Science and technology for
  the Developing World
• The EU WI ERA-NET, the main achievement of the
  EUWI Research Working Group
• Contributing to the analysis of joint European
  and developing Countries approaches to IWRM
• The Review EU-INCO water research from FP4 to
  FP6 (1994-2006)
• Contributing to capacity building and awareness
  raising through the uptake of research results at
  the local level
• The River Twinning projects under FP6 - Thematic
  Priority Global Change and Ecosystems
• Networking and co-ordination activities FP6
  Co-ordination actions

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EU WI ERA-NET Co-ordination of MS Research
Programmes in Water Science and technology for
the Developing World

• Objective To improve communication,
  collaboration and coordination of water research
  funded by Member States in developing countries
  to increase the effectiveness and benefits,
  reduce duplication and repetition and enhance
  synergy between actions under the Commission
  Framework Programme for RTD and Member State
  research programmes
• 15 research programme owners/managers from 11
  Countries UK (Department of International
  Development - Co-ordinator), Austria, Belgium,
  Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Czech
  Rep., Norway, Switzerland
• Several international organisations as observers

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EU WI ERA-NET Strategic objectives

• Systematic exchange of information and good
  practices on existing research programmes and
  improvement of access to this information
• Identification of common strategies on specific
  thematic and/or regional reseaarch activities
  through mapping of activities
• Development of joint activities between national
  and regioanl programmes (personnel exchanges,
  workshops, sharing research facilities,
  clustering of programmes)
• Explorative analysis in view of implementing
  joint research programmes (towards ERA-NET plus?)

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Introducing the Review EU-INCO water research
from FP4 to FP5

• Background Stronger commitment at EU level not
  only at the project level but also at programme
  policy level towards Impact Assessment
  (COM(2002)276 of 5/6/2002)
• A sample of 67 international ST cooperation
  projects supported by the INCO Programme through
  Research Framework Programmes (FP4, 5, 6) have
  been reviewed by a panel
• This represents an investment of gt50 MEuro
• International expert group to analyse what we
  have learnt through this cooperation.

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International Review Panel of the Review

• Pragya Dipak Gyawali, Nepal (Chair)
• Prof. Anthony Allan, UK (Rapporteur)
• Prof. Paula Antunes, Portugal
• Dr. Basim Dudeen, Palestinian Authority
• Dr. Pietro Laureano, Italy

• Prof. Cassio Luiselli, Mexico
• Dr. Pedro Monteiro, South Africa
• Dr. Hong Khanh Nguyen, Vietnam
• Prof. Pavel Novácek, Czech Republic
• Prof. Claudia Pahl-Wostl, Germany

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Scoring methodology of the Review

• Has research addressed social, economic
  environmental priorities (Sust)? E.g. Was
  Sustainable Development at the core of research?
• Was an integrated approach practiced (Intg)? E.g.
  Was co-dependence of the water sector and other
  sectors clear?
• Were there policyrelevant impacts (Impc)? E.g.
  Contribution to societal problem solving? What
  was the uptake by others? Legacy capacity
  building, educational etc.
• Was there constructive engagement (Comm)? E.g.
  with governments, civil society, private sector,
  education system etc.
• Was there communication with the society (Narr)?

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Some Findings (1)
The aggregated average scores on the six main
indicators to evaluate the performance of 67
EU-INCO water research projects
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Some Findings (2)
The standard deviation data reflecting the
scatter of results of the FP4, FP5 and FP6 scores
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Main conclusions of the Review EU-INCO water
research from FP4 to FP6

• Increased role in raising awareness among
  societal actors of the challenges facing
  political leaders, policy-makers water users.
• Enhanced integration of science with policy
  priorities
• Increased emphasis on environmental, societal
  economic impacts of research
• Promotion of new approaches to water policy and
  policy-relevant water science thanks to stronger
  interplay between EU 3rd countries research
  teams.

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Introducing the River Twinning initiative under
FP6
Overall objective Promote twinnings of European
and third countries river basins for the
development of IWRM to underpin the
implementation of the EUWI

• Regions involved
• Europe Spain (Guadalentin River Basin), UK
  (Thames), Sweden (Norrstrom), Germany (Neckar),
  Austria (Mur), Upper Danube River Basin (UDRB),
  Norway (Glomma), Spain/Portugal (Tejo/Tagus) and
  various RBOs in France, Netherlands, Italy,
  Poland, Hungary
• Mediterranean countries RBOs in Algeria,
  Morocco, Israel (Nahal Zin Catchment - Negev
  Desert)
• Africa Namibia (Kuiseb Catchment), South Africa
  (Western Namaqualand), Botswana (Okavango), Benin
  (Queme), RBOs in Niger and Senegal
• EECCA Countries Uzbekistan (Chirchik/Upper
  Syrdaria), Kazakhstan (Nura)
• Latin America Chile (Bio Bio) and RBOs from
  Mexico and Brasil
• Asia RBOs in Indonesia, Upper Brahmaputra River
  Basin, Vietnam/Cambodia (Sesan), India (Tunga
  Bahdra)

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The River Twinning initiative facts and figures
in FP6

• Total EU contribution for this initiative of 13.8
  Million with 1.3 to 2.8 Million per project
• Seven  twinning  projects RIVERTWIN,
  TWINBAS,WADE, TWINLATIN, TWINBASINxn,
  BRAHMATWINN, STRIVER
• TWINBASINxn multi-regional CA co-ordinated by
  the Office International de lEau with Algeria
  (BO of Algerois-Hodna-Soummam) and Morocco (BO of
  Sebou) promoting exchanges among Basin
  organisations (http//www.twinbasin.org)
• Its success is also demonstrated by its
  continuation under FP7 present call on South
  America under Theme Environment (published on
  22/12/2006).

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Some Important Features of the River Twinning
initiative

• Emphasis on global change concept
• On-the-job training, capacity building
• Public participation and End-Users
• Blueprints for integrated river basin management
  plans adapted to local conditions
• Replicability

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Introducing Coordination Actions in IWRM

• Objective connecting different strands of
  knowledge and translating scientific knowledge in
  policy terms
• A number of Coordination actions have been set up
  in different regions, e.g.
• Mediterranean MELIA, NOSTRUM-DSS
• Asia ASEMWATERNET, MAI-TAI
• Latin America WAFLA

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Coordination Actions in the Mediterranean

• NOSTRUM-DSS (http//www.feem-web.it/nostrum)
• Objectives
• To establish durable links between scientific
  institutions, governments, NGOs, and other
  stakeholders and improve public awareness on
  water management
• To improve scientific knowledge and applied
  methodologies in IWRM
• To promote the development of suitable DSS tools
  built upon real needs of policy making.
• Algeria, Croatia, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkey
• MELIA (http//www.meliaproject.eu/)
• Objectives
• Establish a dialogue and connect with other
  research projects dealing with IWRM in view to
  enhange dissemination and improve uptake of
  research results in local contexts
• Improve water regional planning and management
  under scarcity to enhance Sustainable development
  in the Mediterranean region
• Involve stakeholders from the UE and
  Mediterranean countries in view of understanding
  and applying the principles of the EU Water
  Framework Directive
• Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco,
  Israel/Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey

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Expectations towards futureresearch

• High impact through integrating previously
  disconnected knowledge strands and perspectives
  along sustainability dimensions
• High impact through connecting policy objectives
  (sustainability, equity) to actionable lessons
• High impact through constructive engagement with
  different social actors and their empowerment
• Increasingly effective use of the internet and a
  range of other communication modes, to enable
  broad-based social learning and use in practice.
• Awareness of political nature of water
  allocation, of cultural preferences and contexts,
  and of traditional knowledge
• Targeted networking with other European, national
  and international projects for critical mass,
  accountability impact.

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To conclude

• Research has a great potential in contributing
  to solve water challenges in the World if
  research results are translated into policy
  terms. Science should devote more efforts to
  this effect.

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Information

• EU Water Initiative
• EUWI web Site http//www.euwi.net/
• EUWI Research Web Site http//ec.europa.eu/resear
  ch/water-initiative
• EUWI ERA-NET http//www.euwi-era.net