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ANIMA puts forward 25 operational projects for the Mediterranean - Project n°22: A Mediterranean Water Observatory System
ANIMA Investment Network publishes in association with the Diplomatie magazine a special issue entitled: “25 projects for the Mediterranean countries.” It is now available in kiosks in France, as well as occasionally at Euro-Med events. The English version will follow shortly.
Based on a call for ideas released in the spring and advertised through Web sites, the media and partner organisations, it associates both public figures (Philippe de Fontaine Vive Curtaz, Jean-Louis Guigou, Paul Balta, Jean-Michel Debrat) and more anonymous players, living around the Mediterranean or not. They were asked to give their views on what a “Union for the Mediterranean” could be like, through the grassroots projects seen as essential for its realisation.
“By mobilising civil society, young generations, researchers, women, project holders, partners from the South and public institutions, at a time when the G-Med on the Med Union is about to gather on July 13th, in Paris, ANIMA is willing to bring concrete ideas in,” explains Laïla Sbiti, president of ANIMA Investment Network, stressing that “although they remain symbolic, the selected 25 projects, are easily feasible at reasonable costs. As such, they express both a potential and a strong will to build together.”
The ANIMA team selected 25 projects on the basis of their expected impact. They were then divided into 4 main areas: “Tourism, exchanges, civil society”; “infrastructures and networks”; “economics and finances”; “environment and sustainable development.” The ideas are diverse: tourist revival of the caravans’ itineraries, incubation project targeting women, shared management of seaborne security, of water, Euro-Mediterranean investment bank etc.
ANIMA, whose aim is to contribute to the positioning of the Mediterranean as a prime economic destination, is delighted by the new and current interest shown in the region. Nevertheless, in order to be successful the revival of the “Barcelona Process, Union for the Mediterranean,” while showing a new political will, shall necessarily address the concrete expectations of the Mediterranean peoples. The projects presented in this special issue, while modest, have the potential to make ideas come to life and to participate in the development of larger projects.
Project n°22: A Mediterranean Water Observation System
Among the projects presented, the Mediterranean Water Observation System: (pp. 74). The implementation of a regional tool based on National Water Information Systems (NWIS) will allow access to reliable data, harmonized and the relevant national and local levels, which are cruelly lacking today at the regional level to support any policy of integrated water resource management and risk prevention. These data, provided on voluntary basis of countries, could be compared with those on sustainable development in the Mediterranean. The main stakeholders in the implementation of such systems are the ministries in charge of water in the Euro-Mediterranean countries. Twenty of them have already established National Focal Points (NFP), which co-operate successfully over the past decade under EMWIS. The studies carried out in the countries show the interest of actors to work with existing NFP to establish their own national system, whether providers or users of data (institutes of statistics, meteorology, health ministries, local environment, agriculture...). At the regional level, implementation of such a tool, taking into account both the needs of international initiatives and the reality of management on the ground, would: provide an essential component for both a shared system for environmental information and for a global mechanism for observation on water and sanitation, better consistency of the indicators produced by different agencies, greater aid effectiveness for the water sector in countries to contribute to the coherence of regional policies (the Mediterranean Action Plan, Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, European Neighbourhood Policy...).
| Contact information |
Jeanne Lapujade, ANIMA Investment Network / Marseille: 10 place de la Joliette, Les Docks - Atrium 10.2 (6ème étage), BP 17624 F-13567 Marseille 02, France - www.anima.coop
(email: jeanne.lapujade@anima.coop) Phone: +334 96 11 67 65 ; Fax +33 4 96 11 67 61 |
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| News type | Inbrief |
| File link |
http://www.animaweb.org/uploads/File/AIN_25Projets_VE_15-07-2008.pdf |
| File link local |
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| Source of information | ANIMA Investment Network |
| Subject(s) | INFORMATION - COMPUTER SCIENCES , METHTODOLOGY - STATISTICS - DECISION AID , POLICY-WATER POLICY AND WATER MANAGEMENT |
| Relation | http://www.emwis.net/thematicdirs/press/book/ANIMA_enjeuxMED_FR.pdf |
| Geographical coverage | Euromed |
| News date | 25/07/2008 |
| Working language(s) | ENGLISH , FRENCH |
