MENA NWC Update Spring 2015 | Page 2

Page 2 MENA NWC Update Network Center Directors Meet in Egypt Continued from page 1 • • • Do you have an upcoming event, recently published report, or paper you’d like the Network to promote? Please send it to [email protected] strategies to ensure the Network’s sustainability. Enable Centers to share their technical areas of focus and strengths with each other. Receive feedback from Centers about the process and substance of launching and strengthening the Network. Provide an opportunity for Centers to discuss and help determine the future course of the Network’s program. As a result of the meeting, participants agreed to the following: Participants of the MENA NWC Center Directors Meeting held in Sharm ElSheikh, Egypt in November 2014. • • The IMU agreed to do a full-scale update of MENA NWC’s Strategic Business Plan to be circulated in June 2015. The Center Directors confirmed that the Network’s five Technical research areas were still appropriate and • relevant. Center Directors agreed to meet annually and to form three Working Groups: Capacity Building and Knowledge Sharing; Research Quality and Impact; and Collaboration and Partnerships. The Directors identified Network Convenes Water Footprint Assessment (WFA) Training in Bahrain MENA NWC co-convened a regional training course — Water Footprint Assessments for GCC and Arab Countries — held at Arabian Gulf University (AGU) in Bahrain from 20-22 April 2015. The course was offered jointly with AWARENET, the Water, Science & Technology Association (WSTA), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN ESCWA), and Cap-Net UNDP. Through a competitive application process, the Network covered the cost of 13 staff from Member Centers to attend the training. Network-funded participants represented nine member Centers. Following the course, MENA NWC-sponsored participants stayed in Bahrain for an additional day to prepare research proposals to be funded by MENA NWC in partnership with external investors. Developing new research proposals is a practical exercise directly linked to MENA NWC's fundraising efforts. New collaborative research proposals that practically address regional water challenges demonstrate to private industry, public institutions, and investors the importance and convening power of MENA NWC.