Regional Roundtable // "Water, Food, Energy and Environment Nexus in Southeastern Europe (SEE)", Zagreb/Croatia

The event is organized and supported by the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), Global Water Partnership-Mediterranean (GWP-Med) and the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) in cooperation with the German Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), Global Environment Facility (GEF) IW:LEARN project and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Additional financial support for the meeting is provided within the Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC) with funds of the Austrian Development Agency, the operational unit of Austrian Development Cooperation, and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. The SEE 2020 Strategy of the RCC aims to improve living conditions in the region and bring competitiveness and development back in focus, closely following the vision of the EU strategy Europe 2020. The dimension "Environment" is part of the "Sustainable Growth" Pillar of the SEE 2020 Strategy and measures progress towards environmental sustainability, including resouree efficiency and climate change adaptation; the following are among its objectives: -Advance Water, Energy and Food Nexus approach at national and transboundary levels and investigate opportunities of launehing a political process under the RCC for the enhancement of cooperation in the SEE in the field of transboundary water resources management (TWRM); -Commencement of the Regional Integral Water Management Framework Agreement (RIWMFA) implementation. -Increase adaptive capacity of SEE countries through awareness raising and education on climate change adaptation. A Regional Programme has been prepared as means to foster the achievement of these objectives. The REC and the GWP-Med werk jointly for its implementation: REC leading the Climate Change component and GWP-Med the Water, Energy and Food Nexus component. The SEE 2020 Strategy is complementary and works in coordization with other regional processes. The Petersberg Phase 11 / Athens Declaration Process for the enhaneement of transboundary water resources management in SEE has been supporting since 2005 the buildlng of capacity on Integrated Water Resources Management (lWRM), and the development of management plans for shared water bodies. The organization of the Regional Roundtable follows up the recommendation of the International Roundtable on Water and Energy Nexus in Transboundary Basins in Southeastern Europe that was organized on 6-8 November 2013 in Sarajevo, by the RCC, GWP-Med and BMUB to initiate a dialogue on the Nexus approach at the SEE level. The Regional Roundtable aims to assist in the achievement of the SEE 2020 Strategy objectives. It is the first step in a process to introduce and catalyze action for the Water, Energy, Food and Ecosystems Nexus approach as means to enhance integrated and sustainable management of natural resources and assist towards climate change adaptation. The Roundtable will: -Discuss the level of integration of water, energy, land and environmental management and the level of mainstreaming of interrelated climate change considerations in the SEE countries. -Assist in enhancing capacities of institutions and stakeholders regarding the Nexus approach, including its climate change dimensions, through knowledge exchange and cross-fertilisation among participating stakeholders, policy processes, initiatives, projects etc. -Introduce tools for improved transboundary water resources management (TWRM) making use of the Nexus approach and assist in enhancing related capaeitles of Institutions and TWRM stakeholders. -Discuss the Regional Programme under the dimension "Environment".