ESCWA is organizing the Consultation Meeting on Enhancing Coordination between the Agriculture and Water Sectors, which aims to develop and frame the institutional cooperation for enhanced food security in the Arab region, through the review of existing national institutional coordination mechanisms between the two sectors. The meeting will also include a review of the report prepared by ESCWA’s consultant on the assessment of regional institutional coordination mechanisms between the agriculture and water sectors, in addition to a review and discussion of proposals to enhance and strengthen the coordination between the two sectors, and agree on a set of recommendations to the attention of concerned institutional setting at the League of Arab States for further discussion and subsequent adoption.
Despite the existence of sectoral strategies for water and agriculture (the Arab sustainable agricultural development strategy for 2005-2005, and the Arab strategy on water security), they are limited in establishing common institutional frameworks for developing integrated policies, thus leading to unfavorable enabling environment that lacks effective coordination mechanisms for the development and implementation of joint work programs between the two sectors. Hence, the importance of holding this meeting lies in that it will result in concrete and practical proposals for the development and strengthening of regional institutional cooperation between the agriculture and water sectors in the Arab region.