The EU Water Initiative

National Policy Dialogues in Armenia & Moldova

Pierre Hecq

UNDP Water-CoP MeetingAlmaty, 25-26 October 2007

EUWI – Water for life

Initiative from EU Member States & European Commission

Contribute to the achievement of MDGs and WSSD targets

• Water Supply and Sanitation • Integrated Water Resources Management

Ensure a balance of the human water needs with those of the environment and contribute to halting or reversing the loss of environmental resources

Approach• Actions to meet the water and sanitation MDGs • Partnership approach

– involve all parties concerned through multistakeholder process (EU, partner countries, international organisations, NGOs, private sector, IFIs and other donors etc)

• 4 Regional components (Africa, EECCA, Mediterranean, Latin America)

• Process – No direct financial support

National Policy Dialogue - Concept

• Major instrument within the EUWI, including the EUWI-EECCA Component…

• Evolving on the basis of lessons learned• 1 National Key Partner + 1 Strategic Partner

+ Relevant Stakeholders• The Strategic Partner: EU Member State,

non-EU Member State or international organisation (one for each NPD)

• Demand driven

NPD - Global objective

• To contribute to the achievement of the water related MDGs and IWRM targets in the EECCA region, 5 EUWI objectives and specific EUWI-EECCA Component objectives

NPD - Specific objective

• To initiate joint activities– regarding WSS, Financing and IWRM– concentrating upon a certain issue (e.g. water

quality standards, monitoring or river basin management)

– aimed at improving the regulatory and administrative framework in the EECCA region,

– thereby contributing to the development of road maps to the water-related MDGs and IWRM targets

NPD - Outputs

• Implemented policy packages (i.e. a coherent mix of policy tools, such as new laws, regulations, standards, procedures, charges and concession arrangements)…– … each addressing a certain issue

NPD - Selection criteria

Commitment of the EECCA country (or countries) in question– Capability of Strategic Partner– Compliance with overall objective and

specific objective– Relevance for the EECCA region as a whole

NPD - What's in it for the EECCA countries?

• Easy access to relevant experts in the EU, IFIs and international organisations

• Easy access to best practices from the new EU Member States, such as Lithuania

• Easy access to best practices from the EECCA region

• Easy access to useful tools (e.g. for environmental financing, monitoring or water quality standards)

Building Patnerships

• Overlap (in the WSS & IWRM sectors):– Topics addressed and activities– Participants

• Obvious benefits from joining forces

EUWI-EECCA & OECD EAP TF + UNECE

A potential for cooperation!

In practice?Working together

Reinforce synergies between WSS & IWRM

• Improve the coherence of EU cooperation efforts on water in the region

• Provide a one-stop-shop for assistance on water in EECCA

• EAP TF support on WSS aspects

• UNECE support on IWRM

Benefits

• NPDs under EUWI: dissemination of best practices & approaches from EAP TF and UNECE

• Opportunity to build on OECD and UNECE work in several EECCA countries

• Better use of financial resources: meetings & travels

EAP Task Force

Steering Committees Major points of discussions

• How to introduce the cost recovery principle?

• What is the threshold of water charges as a share of household incomes - in average and by household income groups? 5%?

• What are the costs of improving monitoring?

EAP Task Force

• How to develop specially designed social protection measures?

• How to appoint River Basin Councils?

• How to incorporate the water strategy into the budget?

• How to improve cooperation between different water management authorities?

• … and, hopefully, not only discussions

EAP Task Force

Steps involved in preparing a NPD• Step 1: Submission of official request by a

potential key stakeholder • Possible key stakeholder: Ministry of Environment,

State Committee on Water Resources

• Step 2: Identification of solid Strategic Partner

• Possible solid Strategic Partners in CA: UNDP, GWP, OECD/EAP Task Force and UNECE

• Step 3: Development of draft Organisation & Methodology

• 5-10 pages

EAP Task Force

• Step 4: Finalisation of Organisation and Methodology and conclusion of firm agreements with Strategic Partners

• Step 5: Drafting of Mission Preparation Note by the identified Strategic Partner

• 5 pages

• Step 6: Start-up mission - and Memorandum of Understanding

• Step 7: Call-in of 1st meeting of the Steering Committee overseeing the NPD

EAP Task Force

The NPDs – Key Elements (1)

• The sequence of activities depends:– on countries’ past achievements– the urgency of tasks ahead

• Environmental Performance Reviews (OECD, UNECE), UNDP country papers, GWP analysis and the UNECE Assessment of the Status of Transboundary Waters are valuable sources of inspiration

• Encourage ownership from all actors

EAP Task Force

The NPDs – Key Elements (2)

• The NPD process is a dialogue and not a technical project; it should however facilitate developing projects that address jointly identified problems

• Benefits from one to other EECCA countries. From a wide rage of IWRM issues, each country should address a specific sub-set of issues, preferably not to be repeated in other countries.

EAP Task Force