Represented by Executive Secretary Bader Omar Al Dafa, UN-ESCWA signed on 11 January 2008 a memorandum of understanding with the German Embassy in Lebanon, represented by Ambassador Hansjoerg Haber concerning the project "Advisory Services to UN-ESCWA and UN-ESCWA Member Countries in the Water Sector".
The signing ceremony took place at the UN House, Beirut, and was attended by UN-ESCWA Chiefs of Divisions and officials from the Embassy.
Commending German assistance to UN-ESCWA and consequently to the region, Executive Secretary Bader Omar Al Dafa hoped such cooperation could be extended to include other fields, namely that of youth, which constitute almost 60% of the Arab population and represent a challenging category that suffers from many difficulties and problems, not the least of which being unemployment.
For his part, the German Ambassador expressed his pleasure to be joining efforts with UN-ESCWA, which he described as "a good partner". Germany is funding projects in the Western Asia region with about 1 Billion dollars, and water represents an important sector of its work. Praising the dynamic leadership of the UN Regional Commission, Haber said it was in this spirit of confidence that the MoU is signed.
Driven by its objective to support economic and social cooperation among the countries of the region and promote development in order to achieve regional integration, UN-ESCWA aims to ensure that Western Asia interacts with other regions, to familiarize them with the circumstances and needs of the countries of the region.
Sustainable Development and Productivity Division (SDPD) Chief, Anhar Hegazi said that UN-ESCWA serves as the UN regional arm, which extends the help it receives from the German authorities to its member countries, helping them in turn to benefit of it, even during difficult times. Despite the hard circumstances some of the UN-ESCWA member countries are going through, good progress in being achieved on the project level.
The coordination of UN-ESCWA with Germany in the field of water comes to serve the best interests of member countries, the majority of which is dealing with issues such as drought, desertification and water scarcity.
Coming in the context of Western Asia, the MoU specifies a framework of cooperation between all parties in developing and implementing specific activities related to the management of shared water resources, and regional dialogue on shared water resources. By virtue of the MoU, support will be given to Integrated Water Resources Management, with the organization of expert group meetings, strategic support to Arab Integrated Water Resources Management Network, training workshops and consultations with concerned ministries in a number of member countries, as well as the organization of seminars and coordination meetings in this context.
