Welcome to USAID Regional Water Governance Benchmarking Project (ReWaB)

Population growth and rising demand for food, housing, and jobs place extreme pressures on the Middle East’s already limited water resources. Some countries are attempting to overcome their shortages by tapping deep, nonrenewable groundwater resources or investing in expensive desalination plants. Others try wringing more value out of each drop that is used. Good water management is critical as the costs and value of water continue to rise, and potential disputes over water threaten to exacerbate existing political tensions.

To help meet these challenges, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) developed an innovative regional water strategy termed the Blue Revolution Initiative. Its latest project, is the $1.5 Million Regional Water Governance Benchmarking project (ReWaB), launched in September 2008 and is sponsored by USAID’s Office of Middle East Programs. Slated to run for 18 months, International Resources Group (IRG), together with its implementing partners - the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the Institute for Water and Watersheds at Oregon State University (OSU/IWW), Computer Assisted Development Incorporated (CADI), Nile Consultants of Egypt, and ECO Consult of Jordan - will build a strategic framework and establish indicators and benchmarks to guide and monitor national progress on improving water governance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Five countries being considered for primary focus include Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey, and Oman. Different country groupings may be formed for different purposes. For example, the project's water governance document collection could include a fairly wide range of countries in the MENA, while more intensive legal, policy, and organizational analyses will likely be restricted to the five focal countries.

Overall approach to this project is built around four tasks: (1) Framework Development; (2) Policy, Legal, and Organizational Assessments; (3) Benchmarking System Development; and (4) Outreach). For more information, please click Activities on the left menu bar and Task buttons on the top menu.