GEWAMED Project 6th Framework Programme

Project n°: INCO-CT-2005-517696

Project acronym: GEWAMED

Project title: “MAINSTREAMING GENDER DIMENSIONS INTO WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT

IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION”

Instrument: Coordinated Action

Thematic Priority: Specific Measures in Support of International Cooperation (FP6-2003-INCO-MPC-2)

Report of the First Meeting of the Consultation and Advisory Gender

Committee

Period covered: From 15 February 2006 to 14 February 2007

Date of preparation:

March 2007

Start date of the Project:

15 February 2006 Duration: 4 years

Project coordinator Name: Dr. Nicola Lamaddalena

Project coordinator organization name: Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (MAIB), International Center for advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM)

Mainstreaming Gender Dimensions

into Water Resources

Development and Management

in the Mediterranean Region

GEWAMED Project

CIHEAM-IAMB EC - DG Recherche

MAIN CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS27 September 2006

First Session ofthe Consultation and Advisory Gender Committee

CIHEAM

Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari

Italy

GEWAMED “Mainstreaming Gender dimensions into Water Resources

Development and Management in the Mediterranean Region” Contract No.: FP6-517696

First Session of the Consultation and Advisory

Gender Committee

MAIN CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

27 September 2006

INTRODUCTION On the 27 of September 2006, the First Session of the Consultative and Advisory Gender Committee of GEWAMED was held at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari, Italy. It was attended by the following external advisers: • Joke Muylwijk, Executive Director of GWA (Gender and Water Alliance), • Rasha Omar, Country Programme Manager and Gender Coordinator of the Near East

and Africa Regions of IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development), and • Ilaria Sisto, Training Officer, Gender and Development Service of FAO (Food and

Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). and the following internal advisers: • Atef Hamdy, Emeritus Professor (MAI-B), and • Claudio Bogliotti, International Consultant (MAI-B). as well as the following staff of GEWAMED: • Nicola Lamaddalena, Project Coordinator, • Juan Antonio Sagardoy, Project Manager, • Rosanna Quagliariello, Technical Officer, and • Raouf Guelloubi, Technical Support Officer. Regrettably Giuliana Trisorio Liuzzi, Vice- President of the CIHEAM, could not attend the event due to last minute circumstances. During this event, the following documents were distributed to all the participants as prints and also electronically as CD: • GEWAMED Progress Report. • GEWAMED, Annex 1 - "Description of Work". • GEWAMED Brochure (Eng, Fr). • Proceedings of the Kick-off Meeting of GEWAMED: "Institutional Coordination and

Streamlining Partners Activities in the Framework of GEWAMED Project", Options Méditerranéennes, Serie A: Mediterranean Seminars, n°68. J.A. Sagardoy, A. Hamdy, G. Trisorio Liuzzi, N. Lamaddalena, R. Quagliariello, C. Bogliotti and R. Guelloubi (eds).

• GEWAMED Newsletters: Number 1 (June 2006) and Number 2 (September 2006). • Report about the distribution of GEWAMED Newsletter n°1. • A proposal for the development of synergies between the INECO and GEWAMED

project. • Description of the Regional web site of the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari. • Summary report of the workshop on "Using Internet Effectively" given by Dr. B.

Ueberschar, IfM-GEOMAR, Germany and prepared by J.A. Sagardoy. The meeting lasted one day and included the presentation and the discussion of the progress report and the planned activities for the work packages 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 (the other two packages are not supposed to start within the first year of operation), and was chaired by Ilaria Sisto (FAO). The one-day meeting of the CAGC was productive and showed the engagement of all the involved participants.

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GENERAL CONCLUSION In general, the Consultation and Advisory Gender Committee (CAGC) recognized that the GEWAMED Project has made good progress since its launching on the 15th February 2006 with positive preliminary achievements in four Work packages (namely 1, 2, 3 and 5). The progress made during the first 6 months of the project is impressive. Most projects need a long time to start up, but GEWAMED started immediately (i.e. the Kick-off meeting took place one week after the official starting date of the project) and made a substantial progress. SPECIFIC CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS To Work package 1: Building of a national knowledge base for coordination, communication and dissemination

General

1. The suggestion was made that specific incentives should be identified for the national participants of GEWAMED project to encourage their active contribution to the project (for example a competitive award to recognize their inputs and achievements in regional events, newsletters and other relevant project activities).

Activity 1.3 Establishment of national Web sites in at least 6 South East Mediterranean Region (SEMR1) countries

1. Special attention should be given by local partners to country-based collection

and dissemination of information on gender and water-related issues. 2. General guidelines for quality control should be provided by IAM-B on the

content and format of the national web sites, leaving the final decision on materials to be presented to the national partners. A middle road between quality control and ownership is necessary.

3. Special efforts should be made to promote the exchange of information and experience between the national and regional web sites.

4. Special attention should be given to other forms of information dissemination (i.e. CD-ROM) to overcome the constraints in accessing Internet by South Mediterranean countries. In addition, the documents uploaded on the web page should have a size as lower as possible and the picture included with the lowest resolution. Furthermore, the web page should be linked to search engines (i.e. Google, …).

5. It was highly recommended to translate the materials into Arabic, particularly in Arabic speaking countries and whenever advisable into French, keeping always a summary in English;

Activity 1.4 Maintenance of the National web sites

1. After a certain period of functioning (one year for example), the technical,

contents and structure aspects of the websites need to be evaluated.

1 In the context of this document the denomination of South East Mediterranean Region (SEMR) covers the following 9 countries: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.

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Activity 2,2 Collection, processing and dissemination of gender-water related information

1. There is a need to produce policy briefs and information notes to sensitise

policy- and decision-makers, through GEWAMED, on the relevance of gender mainstreaming in water resources management.

2. Recommendations were made to organize a special event on gender and water management during the 3rd Arab Regional Conference: “Research Advancement in Managing Limited Water Resources”, which the Arab Water Council and the National Water Research Center of Egypt are organizing in Cairo from 9 to 11 December 2006. The MAI-B, GEWAMED and the Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) agreed to jointly convene this event. The programme will include 3 hours of oral presentations. The possibility of organizing one 1 day of discussions with the Project partners will be decided on consultation with the partners and depending on the number of partners attending the Conference. Furthermore, the CAGC strongly recommended the participation of stakeholders during the working groups.

3. CAGC agreed with the request of the EC financed Aquastress Project to assist them in organizing a 2 days seminar on setting-up strategies for strengthening gender integration in water management, planned in 7 and 8 November 2006 in Poland (Katowice). This will be done in collaboration with the Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) and will serve as an example for organizing seminars in other countries; the details will be defined by GEWAMED management team.

Activity 2.3 Preparation of a report containing a set of gender indicators

1. For the foreseen Document on Gender-Sensitive Indicators (GSIs) for the water

sector, it was agreed to establish an ad-hoc working group to prepare a draft Report through a participatory methodology and with some guidance for the Consortium partners, containing a list of potential indicators. It should be based on available documents and information as well as some additional research to be conducted. As a first step, a CD containing 2 previous publications of CIHEAM-MAIB was distributed to the members of the CAGC:

• Gender mainstreaming in the water sector: theory, practices, monitoring and evaluation. 2005. Ed. Atef Hamdy. 159 p.

• Measuring gender progress in integrated water resources management by use of indicators: review and proposals. 205. Ed. Juan Antonio Sagardoy. 25 p.

During the International Conference planned in Cairo, the draft document on GSIs will be discussed with GEWAMED partners. The revised draft will be analyzed in an electronic conference before being officially submitted to the European Commission in 2007. The preliminary idea is that the document should include mainly 2 parts: the first one describing the methodology followed, and the second containing a list of indicators from general to more specific ones, and from which any interested politician, decision-maker, researcher, student …, can pick-up the more relevant indicators for his or her study. The indicators should be defined through a bottom-up approach, and be also linked to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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To Work package 2: Building of a regional knowledge base for coordination, communication and dissemination

Activity 3.1 Establishment of a dedicated Regional Internet web site

1. It was suggested that the Regional web site should be general and includes documents more specialized on the macro issues and international commitments (i.e. Millennium development goals, Beijing Platform for Action and the recommendations of the main conferences and events related to poverty, water and natural resources).

2. GEWAMED website can include a link to the web site of GWA and add to its documents section the GWA material distributed during the meeting or what is available on GWA web site on the condition to properly refer to it as publications of GWA. Links can be made to many other web-sites, without duplicating them.

3. Additional human resources should be considered for the selection of the materials for the regional web site and the future update. One possibility could be to ask the assistance of GEWAMED partners in the identification of a volunteer or semi-volunteer for this task; this can also be included in the next Newsletter (December 2006).

4. The information on this web site should also be available in Arabic and if possible French, at least for the most relevant documents and information.

Activity 3.4 Preparation of quarterly Newsletters

1. The dissemination of the Newsletter and the receptions appears quite positive.

However, ways to increase its dissemination should be explored, for example the alumni of MAI-B and other partners may have contacts that would be interested in the Newsletter. It was also suggested to establish a linkage with other international projects and organizations (i.e. FAO, DIMITRA project, IRC, etc).

2. The format and content of the newsletter should be revised, including one or two substantive articles on gender and water management, list of on-going and future events, special announcements, new training and information materials produced at international level by partners and other stakeholders, while its size should remain brief (5 pages). In addition, it was agreed that the contents of the next newsletter (December 2006) will be about the National Central Focal Point of every partner.

3. GEWAMED partners could be responsible for the translation of the newsletter into Arabic, French and Spanish.

To Work package 3: Mainstreaming gender dimensions in water management for food security and food safety

Activity 4.1 Organization and undertaking of a Regional workshop on Mainstreaming Gender Dimensions in water management for food security and food safety

1. It was agreed to keep separate the two topics of food security and food safety,

but give more attention to the gender implications in food security as the CAGC felt that this was a priority issue for most of GEWAMED Member Countries. For this, it was suggested to limit the discussion on food safety to one presentation, which shall discuss especially the topics of food safety and the use of untreated wastewater in irrigation. The participants of the Regional workshop will work

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then in small groups to discuss lessons learned and how they would apply the information received at the meeting by internationally recognized experts in their respective countries;

2. CAGC members will assist GEWAMED Management team in identifying keynote speakers and specialists for the Regional Workshop planned in Cyprus in February 2007;

3. For the 2008 Regional workshop on Gender and rural development it was suggested to focus on the concept of integrated water management, as it was felt that for the moment emphasis was given only on the agriculture use of water.

4. For all of the coming events, it was recommended that terms of references be written for the partners to follow. In addition, if the partners themselves aren’t experts on the subjects under discussion, they can hire external experts who will carry those tasks. Moreover, the participation of external experts who can pay for all the expenses should be encouraged.

5. The CAGC highlighted the importance of involving top-level decision makers for the coming workshops and include them even during the brainstorm working groups sections.

Activity 4.2 Review and coordination of the knowledge base at country level

1. An outline will be developed by GEWAMED Management team for data

collection in preparation of this Regional event so that all the presentation will have similar contents allowing to have more focused and detailed information about gender and food security in the different partners’ countries.

To Work package 5: Political and institutional gender dimensions in water resources management

Activity 5.1 Establishment of a National Central Focal Point in each of the SEMR countries

1. To stimulate national networking, it is essential to identify all related

stakeholders to be involved in the different activities of GEWAMED. 2. Terms of reference and a detailed profile should be specified for the National

central focal points and related national networks, with a list of their expected outputs. The person to be selected should have decision-making power and support from top management in partner organization;

3. GEWAMED Management team should assess and, if necessary, assist national partners in the establishment of the local network and a visit will be paid by the Project Manager, or other advisers, to the different participating countries.

Activity 5.2 Reports of the National Central Focal Point

1. A standard format for the reports of the national focal points should be prepared

to provide for uniformity and reduce the amount of work to be done locally. To Work package 7: Management and Coordination

1. CAGC recommended retaining a gender expert on a needs base to assist with specific activities of GEWAMED Project. This expert can be external, up-graded from the project partners, or a consultant.

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2. It should be made clear that the staff listed as GEWAMED team is mostly part time with the exception of two persons.

3. Whenever the need justify it, the Project Management should call the partners to meet in Bari or other places to discuss important issues, with due consideration to budget implications.

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