The United Nations Development Account Project on Developing the Capacities of the Arab Countries for Climate Change Adaptation by Applying Integrated Water Resources Management Tools project seeks to assist Arab Governments to build their capacity for climate change adaptation by applying integrated water resources management (IWRM) tools. This is sought by: (a) increasing understanding of climate change impacts on water resources and associated vulnerabilities to inform climate change adaptation policy-making; (b) providing a set of regionally appropriate IWRM tools for supporting climate change adaptation in five key sectors (agriculture, economic development, environment, health, and human settlements); and (c) enhancing knowledge of associated best practices in each of the five sectors that may be drawn upon to support the preparation of national and sector based adaptation and development plans. The project is led by ESCWA in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Program Regional Office for West Asia (UNEP/ROWA), and is implemented in partnership with the Arab Centre for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD), the Arab Countries Water Utilities Association (ACWUA), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the World Health Organization Centre for Environmental Health Action (WHO/CEHA).

A training manual consisting of five complementary modules, each focused on one of the key sectors was prepared by the respective organizations. This workshop aims to present and test the draft module on Economic Development that was prepared by ESCWA. The training module aims to enhance the capacity of Arab Governments to incorporate IWRM tools into economic strategies, policies and plans in order to adapt to climate change. This is done through investigating macroeconomic and microeconomic climate change impacts and applying Integrated Assessment Economic Models (IAMs) that can estimate the economic cost of climate change based on the regional climate projections generated under RICCAR.