International Roundtable on Transboundary Water Resources Management in the Southern Mediterranean was held in Rome on 26–27 November 2012 in Rome, Italy.

The International Roundtable gathered more than 80 participants including government representatives, UN agencies, IGOs and NGOs, and other stakeholders. It provided a platform for the exchange of information and experience.

Participants stressed the importance of transboundary cooperation and of the mobilization of political commitment among riparian countries to tackle the crucial issue of transboundary waters in a region marked by scarce water resources under the pressure of a growing population and the impact of climate change.

The workshop allowed representatives of countries in the Southern Mediterranean to work together and with other countries in the Mediterranean to:

• Debate the current state, the progress achieved and the prevailing challenges for cooperation on transboundary waters in the Southern Mediterranean;
• Exchange experiences, lessons learnt and showcase good practices of transboundary cooperation from different basins/aquifers, both from the north and the south of the Mediterranean;
• Increase awareness on and understanding of the UNECE Water Convention and its work, including the technical and strategic guidance documents developed under its framework and the practical experiences of its application;
• Identify options at the technical and policy levels for the way forward, including identify specific cases of cooperation on shared waters that present a certain level of maturity and could be promoted by the riparians as priority project to be supported.

The Roundtable was jointly organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), the Global Water Partnership Mediterranean (GWP-Med), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) International Waters Learning Exchange and Resource Network (IW:LEARN), and the Mediterranean Component of the EU Water Initiative (MED EUWI), with the support of the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea.

The International Roundtable on Transboundary Water Resources Management in the Southern Mediterranean was held prior to the sixth session of the Meeting of the Parties.

Read more: http://www.unece.org/env/water/southmed_roundtable.html