High level officials from more than 15 Arab countries, including 8 ministers in charge of water, and some 80 water experts from the Arab region and beyond attended the formal launching on 6 July 2008 of the Arab Water Academy (AWA) in Abu Dhabi, under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, deputy prime minister of the UAE and chairman of the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD). The Academy is the brainchild of the Cairo-based Arab Water Council (AWC), a regional water policy think-tank chaired by Dr Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, Egypt’s Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation and former President of the World Water Council, who also attended the meeting. Hosted by the Islamic Development Bank's (IDB) Dubai-based International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), in partnership with EAD, the Academy is a groundbreaking regional capacity development programme targeting decision-makers and industry executives. The Academy is being supported by the IDB and the World Bank.

Source: IDB, 16 Aug 2008

Tags: capacity development, middle east & north africa, water resources management