Increasing and Improving Natural Resources

Data Collection & Management

Assessment & Analysis

Strategic Planning & Design

Capacity Building & Institutional Strengthening

Policy & Legal Program Support

Technical Program Support

Information Sharing, Cooperation, & Coordination

Performance Monitoring & Evaluation

Commodity Procurement

Volunteer Programs

Data Collection & Management - Illustrative Capabilities of the ME&A Team

As nations begin to understand the need to more effectively manage their entire water portfolio, democracy and government issues will have potential for playing a greater role. Governments are likely to request assistance in areas ranging from guidance on decentralizing water management to building capacity by gathering, managing and acting on water resource data.

National water resources plans, when developed with stakeholder involvement and technically sound, are effective tools for overcoming water resource problems. In Morocco , our partner, Ecology & Environment (E&E), supported the Direction Générale de l'Hydraulique to develop a national water resource management plan. They were able to do this using data gathered from interviews with people living in the watershed areas, municipal and provincial government staff, and national government staff. Initially, E&E worked with ministries to identify organizational issues that would impact the development of the seven basin-level water management authorities. E&E developed a suite of models based on work done by EPA and the World Bank and presented them in a series of stakeholder meetings, first at the level of the new authorities and then to local people. The first level of presentations was done to validate, and if necessary, modify the selections made. The second level was to educate water-users (farmers, home owners and others) as to how they would benefit by using the models. Once selected, the models were parameterized to each basin area using more than 10 years of flow data from the Ministry of Water.