WATER SUM

Project overview:

WATER SUM addressed water-related challenges and promoted regional cooperation in the Middle East and North Africa, focusing on Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan. Implemented by the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) and funded by the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the project combined two complementary components. WATER POrT strengthened skills and knowledge exchange in integrated water resources management to support sustainable development and climate adaptation. WaSe supported local water security action planning to help communities address resource scarcity and environment-related tensions. Through assessments, capacity building, demonstration activities and stakeholder cooperation, WATER SUM aimed to improve water governance, strengthen community resilience and address the interlinked challenges of poverty, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. See project photo gallery on this LINK.

My contribution:

Organization: Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC)
Geographical coverage: Middle East and North Africa — Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan

As Project Director, I provided overall quality control across WATER SUM’s water resources management and local water security components. Supervised project management and team members, monitored implementation against project objectives and planned activities, and coordinated information flow between the project team, beneficiaries and donor. Served as REC’s designated contact for Sida under Grant Agreement Contribution ID 52030234, supporting communication concerning project implementation and the donor relationship.

Selected results:

• Provided overall quality control across the WATER POrT and WaSe components, supporting coordinated implementation of regional water management and local water security activities.

• Supervised project management and team members and monitored progress against project objectives and planned activities.

• Coordinated information exchange between the project team and beneficiaries, supporting cooperation across Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan.

• Prepared Background document for the REC’s World Café 2016 at WWW2016 (R. Laušević, V. Vassilev, A. Kis, F. Abdulla and S. Milutinović (2016): Water, Growth and Stability. Regional Environmental Center, Szentendre, Hungary).

• Prepared Local Water Security Action Planning Manual (R. Laušević, S. Milutinović, J. Petersen-Perlman, M. Reed, A. Graves, M. Bartula, S. Sušić, A. Popović (2016): Local Water Security Action Planning Manual. ISBN 978-963-9638-69-3. Regional Environmental Center, Szentendre, Hungary).

• Served as REC’s designated contact for Sida under Grant Agreement Contribution ID 52030234, maintaining management-level communication between the implementing organisation and donor.