African Ministers Council On Water (AMCOW) North AMCOW (NAMCOW) Sub-regional Report 4 th NAMCOW Meeting

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1 African Ministers Council On Water (AMCOW) North AMCOW (NAMCOW) Sub-regional Report 4 th NAMCOW Meeting Imperial Resort Beach Hotel, Entebbe, Uganda November 3 rd, 2004 The Fourth Meeting of the North African Minister's Council on Water (NAMCOW) was held in Entebbe, Uganda on the 3 rd of November 2004 at the Imperial Resort Beach Hotel. It was attended by their Excellencies the ministers of water and representatives of the following countries of North Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia as per the attached list of participants (Appendix 1), in order to prepare for the 5 th General Assembly meeting of the African Ministers Council on Water to be held in Entebbe, Uganda, 4-6 November, The meeting started by a thankful note to the country representatives for their dedication and interest in strengthening the role of AMCOW, and for making the extra efforts to make this sub-regional meeting possible. The meeting covered the items listed in the attached agenda (Appendix 2). The following is a brief report of the meeting discussions and decisions taken. (1) Membership of NAMCOW in the Executive and Technical AMCOW Committees The membership of NAMCOW in the Executive and Technical Advisory Committees for the new 2-year term was decided to be as follows: AMCOW EXCO: Algeria, Libya, Morocco AMCOW TAC: Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia It was agreed that membership in the AMCOW EXCO and TAC committees will be on a rotational basis. Algeria will act as the NAMCOW coordinating EXCO member, with the Sub-Regional secretariat in CEDARE. (2) African Water Facility (AWF) The North Africa sub-region commends the tireless efforts and progress made to establish the African Water Facility and to seek the necessary funds to start operation. It was decided that "H.E. Dr. Mahmoud Abu- Zeid, Egypt" will represent North Africa in the AWF Governing Council. 1

2 It was noted that the Sub-regional portfolio of projects compiled by UN- Water/Africa does not include all projects that were submitted by NAMCOW to the AMCOW secretariat. In response to the African Water Facility request to identify two projects from North Africa sub-region to be submitted for funding by the African Water Facility according to the set criteria, it was decided to select the following two projects from the North African portfolio of projects: Regional Project for Establishing North Africa Water MDGs subregional Coordination Unit & National MDG Task Forces Regional Project for Water & Sanitation in Rural Areas Algeria and CEDARE (NAMCOW secretariat) will coordinate with the respective beneficiary countries and the AWF to prepare the two project proposals according to the required AWF formats. Participants expressed some concern on the AWF document regarding the AWF ownership and governing board structure, and called for further deliberations with AfDB representatives to discuss these issues. (3) Country Focal Points It was decided that where country AMCOW TAC members exist, they will act as the country focal points. Otherwise AMCOW EXCO members or Water Ministers will nominate a country focal point. The North Africa region list of focal points is as follows: Algeria: Mr. Rachid Taibi Egypt: Dr. Essam Khalifa Libya: Dr. Omar Salem Mauritania: Eng. Saadou Ebih Ould Mohamed El Hacen Morocco: Mr. Mokhtar Bzioui Tunisia: to be determined NAMCOW Sub-Regional Secretariat: Dr. Khaled AbuZeid (4) Regional Economic Centers It was noted that the Regional Economic Centers are not clearly defined and known to the countries of the region in terms of country coverage, regional scope, technical interest, and regional overlap. 2

3 It was concluded that AMCOW secretariat should make available information on the regional economic centers as well as other institutions, organizations and partners that are willing to cooperate with AMCOW to have a better idea on scope of potential cooperation. (5) European Union Water Initiative (EUWI/ IWRM Transboundary Component) In response to the request made by the EU WI (IWRM/Transboundary) component to nominate countries and/or transboundary basins (surface/groundwater) for potential IWRM support from the EUWI, the country representatives took note of their decisions/selections made during the 1 st NAMCOW meeting February 4 th, 2003 which indicated the nominations for countries/basins for IWRM support to be the following: On the National Level: o Assist Mauritania, Algeria in developing IWRM plans by On the Transboundary Waters level, to consider the following basins: o The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer (Egypt, Libya, Chad & Sudan) o The North Western Sahara Aquifer (Algeria, Libya, & Tunisia) o Wadi Guir (Algeria & Morocco) As such and as per the current concrete request from the EUWI to select one basin, the country representatives selected the North Western Sahara Aquifer (Algeria, Libya, Tunisia) for IWRM/transboundary support by the EUWI. (6) EUWI / Water Supply & Sanitation Component The country representatives took note of the selection of Mauritania and Egypt during the 3 rd NAMCOW meeting in April 13 th, 2004, for local dialogues on Water Supply & Sanitation. It has been called upon the AMCOW secretariat and the EU WI secretariat to expedite and make available the procedures for initiating these activities, and provide the contact persons within the EU WI with whom communication should be established. CEDARE/NAMCOW secretariat will follow up with AMCOW and the EU WI to establish communication links and start coordinating these local dialogues. 3

4 (7) Status of Implementation of the MDGs Targets The national MDGs reports have been received from Algeria, Egypt, and Morocco. It was emphasized that Libya, Mauritania, and Tunisia should submit their national MDGs reports in order to compile a sub-regional report on the implementation of the MDGs in North Africa. (8) G8 German Initiative The North Africa region endorses the efforts made by Germany on the G8 Initiative and looks forward to close collaboration with Germany to start implementing the activities under the initiative. (9) AMCOW Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) The North-Africa sub-regional participants discussed the final draft of the MOU and had the following amendments: AMCOW chairman election is on a rotational basis among the subregions in an alphabetical order (Central, Eastern, Northern, Southern, Western). deletion of all annexes to the MOU to avoid confusion, including the reference parenthesis in article 10 which refers to the TOR of the Executive Committee and inclusion of any important items in the body of the MOU. The North Africa region also called for an update of the 2025 Africa Water Vision before including in the MOU. (10) AMCOW Secretariat As the secretariat is the main pillar for the success of AMCOW, organizing meetings, disseminating information, and keeping all members updated, the participants stressed that the AMCOW secretariat should be an efficient, and a strong body to cope with the AMCOW increasing activities. (11) Rules of Procedure of the African Ministers Council on Water The participants indicated that the final version of the Rules of Procedure of the African Ministers Council on Water was received late from the Secretariat. It was agreed to review the document and to send any comments or suggestions to the Secretariat. 4

5 (12) Africa Water Task Force (AWTF) It was decided that "Mauritania" will represent the North Africa subregion in the AWTF. At the conclusion of the meeting, the participants emphasized the importance of holding such sub-regional meetings to enhance work and cooperation among member states, thus helping to raise the region s awareness on water issues and to strengthen the cooperation with all African countries. Participants also acknowledged the generous secretarial support of CEDARE and GWP-Med that was provided to the NAMCOW operations to date. 5

6 Appendix 1 List of Participants H.E. Minister Abdelmalek SELLAL Algeria Mr. Rachid TAIBI Algeria Mr. Rabah LAOUAR Algeria H.E. Minister Mahmoud ABU-ZEID Egypt Dr. Hesham KANDIL Egypt Dr. Essam KHALIFA Egypt Eng. Muftah FELLAH Libya Mr. Lotfi MADI Libya Eng. Saadou Ebih Ould Mohamed EL HACEN Mauritania Mr. Mokhtar BZIOUI Morocco H.E. Ambassador Mohamed Adel SMAOUI Tunisia Dr. Khaled ABUZEID CEDARE/ NAMCOW Secretariat 6

7 Appendix 2 North Africa Ministers Council on Water Meeting (NAMCOW) Entebbe, Uganda, 3 November, 2004 Imperial Resort Beach Hotel Agenda Items 1. Membership of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and Executive Committee (EXCO) 2. African Water Facility 3. Country Focal points 4. Regional Economic Centers 5. EU Water Initiative IWRM/Transboundary component 6. EU Water Initiative, Water Supply and Sanitation 7. Status of Implementation of MDGs Target 8. G8 German Initiative 9. Memorandum of Understanding (Constitution) 10. AMCOW Secretariat ( Nigeria proposal) 11. Rules of Procedure 12. Africa Water Task Force 7