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Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Projects: Evaluating 12 Years of Cooperation

Annual Call for Projects 2005

Summary

The first Israeli-Palestinian international academic conference on water was held in Zürich in December 1992. It served as a prelude to the "water" component of the Oslo accords.

The conference represented the starting point of a long series of cooperative projects between Israelis and Palestinians aimed at addressing water-related issues in a context of shortages and conflicts over appropriation questions.

In parallel to the negotiations and official cooperation between authorities and governmental institutions of both parties intended to result in collective management of resources (on this subject see the study carried out by the Geneva International Peace Research Institute (GIPRI) in 2004: "The Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee Assessment "), a great number of NGOs, academics and research centres undertook joint studies, research and field projects. These related mainly to resource evaluation and management, the recycling and treatment of waste water, trans-border management of ground water, and economic modelling of water usage. The majority of these studies were financed and assisted by third parties -- government development agencies, foundations/NGOs and international institutions -- interested in contributing to Israeli-Palestinian cooperation on joint projects.

The protracted deterioration of the political situation since the beginning of the second Intifada gradually halted all these initiatives, leaving only a small number of them operating in the field, under very difficult conditions, with the heavy responsibility of mitigating a difficult sanitary situation and disastrous water shortages.

The revival of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations however, opens up in the longer term the prospects for new action and the resumption of many cooperative projects which have until now remained blocked for political reasons.

According to scientists associated with the GIAN-supported research team in Geneva, internationally, in Israel and in Palestine, it is nevertheless fundamental to conduct a preliminary review of all the work, research, studies and projects carried out since the early 1990s in order to classify, analyse and evaluate them, to draw up an assessment of their actions, to measure their effectiveness, and determine to what extent the recommendations and projects were put into place and applied. Indeed, thus far, no general and multi-stakeholder study of this type has been conducted. Israeli and Palestinian parties have requested and stressed the timeliness and the need for such a study.

As a peace research institute, the GIPRI is interested in this problem of fundamental importance to the Middle East. The following results are expected to be attained through this study:

• The constitution of a multi-criterion database, that includes all former Israeli-Palestinian sub-state level field cooperation projects concerning water issues;

• An analytical evaluation of these projects;

• A series of policy-relevant recommendations for future projects (feasibility, opportunities, difficulties, etc), which will be classified according to whether they concern: 1) actors (NGOs, academic and international organisations) and what type of actions they should undertake; 2) donors, and what considerations they should include in providing financial support for water sector projects; 3) third parties, and what they should take into account for future actions;

The preparation of research proposals or projects that could be launched with partners affiliated with the international academic "Water for Peace" conference, scheduled to be held in Geneva in 2006.

The grant provided by the GIAN for this project totals SFr 46,000

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Project Team

Mr Laurent Calligé , Coordinator, Geneva International Peace Research Institute (GIPRI) .

Ms Valentina de Socio , Principal Member, Geneva International Peace Research Institute (GIPRI) .

Mr Aniket Ghai , Principal Member, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) .

Mr Jérôme Meyer , Principal Member, Geneva International Peace Research Institute (GIPRI) .

Related Links

> Order book , Order "De l'eau et de la paix" at the Editions Harmattan.

Research Output

Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Projects: Evaluating 12 Years of Cooperation
(available in French only)
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a description
(available in French only)
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