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Objective
EMPOWERS aims at the improvement of local water management
by involving water users in the planning and
decision-making processes. The project expects that active
involvement of local end-users will strengthen bottom-up
planning and will improve water access and rights for
women and other vulnerable groups. Egypt, Jordan and
Palestine are the target countries.
How does EMPOWERS work?
EMPOWERS has developed a dual approach that consists of a
participatory water planning cycle for integrated water
resources management and a stakeholder dialogue for
concerted action. This approach is implemented at the
level of the three involved Governorates and in nine
selected communities in the three target countries. The
planning cycle provides the different stakeholders with an
interactive planning framework, which makes their
participation in making decisions on the use and
management of scarce water resources more tangible.
The stakeholder dialogue uses capacity building and
awareness raising as a foundation to strengthen the
negotiation powers of the involved communities.
EMPOWERS demonstrates its approaches by implementing
community level pilot projects that respond to the
concerns of end users. By involving national level
stakeholders in the community planning and by developing
water strategies at the Governorate level, EMPOWERS
ensures that local activities relate to national policy
formulation. As men and women are both important
stakeholders in water management,
EMPOWERS ensures that they are equally involved in
planning and implementing the pilot projects.
Project results
Through concerted actions over the past three years, each
of the nine communities has already developed its own
village level vision and water development plans. Some of
the communities went already one step further. They
implemented their planning by carrying out a first round
of water related community projects and are developing
follow-up proposals.
The project partners
EMPOWERS works with 15 Government and NGO institutions in
the MEDA partner countries Egypt, Jordan and Palestine and
the EU countries the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
The project is coordinated by
CARE International, a NGO
from the United Kingdom. |
