Working together on cross-border cooperation on water

On Sunday 5 September, 2010, the EastWest Institute and its Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention co-hosted with the Stockholm International Water Institute (www.siwi.org) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (www.sida.se) a workshop at the 20th edition of the annual World Water Week in Stockholm.  The workshop entitled “Charting Cooperative Paths on the Water and Development Nexus in the Euphrates-Tigris Rivers System” brought together more than 50 representatives from the basin countries and regional organizations, as well as international experts on regional integration, economic benefits and international water management to explore cooperative paths towards improved regional integration.

The cooperation between EWI/ the Parliamentarians Network, and key players such as SIDA and SIWI builds on 18 months of work on transboundary water management issues within EWI’s Preventive Diplomacy Initiative and its Afghanistan Regional Security work. In 2009, EWI, in partnership with the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, launched the project “Alternative Futures for Afghanistan and the Stability of Southwest Asia: Improving Regional Cooperation on Water.” This initiative, supported by EWI’s Parliamentarians Network on Conflict Prevention, aims to contribute to more effective international cooperation to help stabilize Afghanistan and neighboring countries with a view to a highly relevant issue indeed: cross-border cooperation on water.

Members of EWI’s Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention, along with Arab, Asian and European leaders, issued a joint declaration on November 5, 2009 outlining steps to increase regional cooperation on water.  The Amman Declaration, issued after a two-day conference in Amman, Jordan, lays out recommendations for shared management of water resources and the role parliamentarians can play to prevent the risk of water-related conflicts.

For more information on the EastWest Institute and its Parliamentarians Network’s activities relating to water management, please http://www.ewi.info/water-security-southwest-asia and http://www.parliamentariansforconflictprevention.net/meeting/parliamenta...