Closing act for BeWater’s involvement with the Tunisian youth
BeWater recently concluded its involvement with the Tunisian youth in the Rmel River Basin and the Zaghouan Region. This was a youth initiative jointly developed with the Global Water Partnership’s “Youth for Water and Climate” since mid 2015, to raise the Tunisian youth’s voice with regards to water resources management and climate change adaptation, both at national and international level.
A closing event was held for the youth initiative consisting of two successive workshops on 12 and 19 November 2016. The idea behind the event was to familiarize the participating youth representatives with a) the water management options and the River Basin Adaptation Plan developed for the Rmel Case Study within the BeWater Project and b) the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - particularly those linked to water security, and experiences on their implementation.
The first workshop on 12 November was held by the Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med), in collaboration with the local NGO “We Love Zaghouan” in Zaghouan, Tunisia, and gathered together around 20 youth representatives from international, national and local NGOs. The event started with a study visit to Lake Hill Essbayheya. Thereafter, the participants exchanged best practices and lessons learnt for the SDGs implementation on both Tunisian and international level.
The second workshop on 19 November was held in Tunis, Tunisia, by BeWater consortium partners GWP-Med and INRGREF. It focused more on leveraging the water adaptation options developed for Rmel Watershed within the BeWater Project to inspire the formulation of concrete action plans to be implemented bythe youth representatives themselves based on their own means.
The game “Un-Eau” developed under the BeWater project was also launched. The participants played the game and actively suggested improvements, regarding the cards’ design and the rules. The investment of the BeWater Project in the potential of interactive games for awareness raising among youth audiences, continues as a follow-up to the training on the Aqua Republica Serious Game that took place back in June 2016 organized by GWP-Med and partner youth organizations.
Finally, the joint BeWater-GWP youth initiative had the chance to be presented at two key youth events during November 2016. GWP-Med’s Meriam Ben Zakour joined GWP’s COP22 side-event on “Youth for Water and Climate: From Commitments to Action” on 8 November. She shared with more than 50 youth NGO representatives the BeWater experience with mobilizing key Tunisian youth actors in developing their own awareness campaigns on water scarcity and the need to save water for youth audiences, in attracting relevant partners from institutions and administration, in linking with the global agenda on SDGs to make their case more relevant and gain from international momentum, etc.
Meriam also joined the Budapest Youth Forum, held in parallel with the Budapest Water Summit (28-30 November). There, in the framework of exchanging best practices with other youth projects’ representatives, she presented the overall BeWater experience of familiarizing Tunisian youth with water management options developed for the Rmel River Basin, and inspiring them to be more actively involved in similar water adaptation planning processes.
This closing event marked the culmination of a series of previous activities implemented in the framework of the joint BeWater – GWP-Med youth initiative.
Photo credits: GWP-Med