On 15 September 2014, the 28th Session of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) opened in the Tunisian capital at the senior officials’ level.

Opening statements were delivered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which chaired the ESCWA 27th Session, and which was represented by Undersecretary of the Economic Policies Affairs at the UAE Ministry of Economy Muhammad Saleh Al Shalwah, and by ESCWA Deputy Executive Secretary Nadim Khouri.

The water supply and demand balance in most of ESCWA member countries is in serious deficit. The average share of renewable freshwater in 8 out of 14 member countries is 500 cubic meters per capita per year, or less than half of the internationally accepted water poverty threshold of 1,000 cubic meters per capita per year. Desalination, which has been practiced for more than 50 years in the ESCWA region, has emerged as the primary response to water scarcity in several countries.



The Workshop addresses the growing need of subnational governments for decentralization in order to empower the formulation of needs-based solutions while concurrently facing circumstances of sub-par national governance, limited budgets and confined legal frameworks; including little consideration to gender mainstreaming and nexus-thinking.