MENBO actively collaborates with other international networks and basin organisations, and participates in different projects and activities related to water management. Following is a summary of these activities: 

GWP-Med Global Water Partnership Mediterranean: 

MENBO is considered an active member of the Partnership Council of the Global Water Partnership-Mediterranean jointly with other nine regional networks: Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development- MIO-ECSDE, The Mediterranean Wetlands Initiative- MedWet, The Euro-Mediterranean Irrigators Community- EIC, The Mediterranean Water Network, The Mediterranean Water Institute- IME, The Mediterranean Cities Network- CIHEAM, International Centre for Advanced Agronomic Studies- MedCities, Centre for Environment and Development in the Arab Region and Europe- CEDARE, and Plan Bleu (UNEP/MAP).

Within the Activity Strategy Plan MENBO was asigned a Capapcity Building type activity to be developed jointly with EIC.  On 2003 each network organised an activity with the support of IME and GWP-Med.  EIC organised one regional seminar on irrigation on 22-23 October in the city of Cairo, Egypt.  The events organised included the 2nd EIC general Assembly.

Similarly, MENBO organised a regional seminar on water resources planning and the Water Framework Directive (see home page for results).  This seminar was organised on 10-13 November, in Valencia, Spain.  A total of 140 participants from 19 different countries participated.  The event also included the 1st MENBO General Assembly and concluded with an agreement to collaborate on the creation of a WFD working group. 

Find more information about GWP-Med on this website.

 The MELIA Project:                           

MELIA is the "Mediterranean Dialogue on Integrated Water Management", and it is a project that aims to achieve an effective regional water management under scarcity conditions through dialogue an exchange of information between key Mediterranean stakeholders.  It is a major goal of this project to improve dialogue and communication among partners from the Mediterranean region. The 63 participating partners  range from international organisations, such as MENBO, to research and educational entities.  MELIA is a project within the FP6, and is active since September 2006. 

Find more information about this project on the MELIA website.

Participation in past projects: 

SPI-Water Project:

SPI-Water "Science-Policy Interfacing in support of the Water Framework Directive implementation". The project proposed a number of concrete actions to bridge the gaps in communication between policymakers and research scientists by developing and implementing a 'science-policy interface' instrument: (the WISE-RTD Web Portal). The focus lay on setting up a mechanism to enhance the use of Research and Technology Development (RTD) results in the Water Framework Directive (WFD) implementation. For this reason the WISE-RTD web portal, developed in the frame of the Harmoni-CA project was further developed and launched.

MENBO was leading a working group within the SPI-Water Project. The object was to further adapt and develop the EU Water Initiative / WFD Joint Process and facilitate the implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles focused on the non-EU counties. This was particularly helpful in the Mediterranean region where direct mutual interests are obvious because of shared river basins and usual problems in terms of IWRM for EU and non-EU countries. As non-European pilot river basins the Agence de Bassin Hydrologique du Sebou, Fez (Morocco) and the Litani River Authority, Beirut (Lebanon) participated in the project.

The main outcome of this working group is a report in which recommendations are given on how to best transfer knowledge on IWRM and the WFD to non-EU countries. The partners also prepared leaflets in English, French and Spanish, which resume the findings and recommendations.

Twinbasin project was promoted by INBO, GWP, OIEAU and other international entities. MENBO collaborated in the project and became a member of the Steering Committee. This project was included in the 6th Framework Programme (FP6) of the EC. Its main objective was to promote twinning of river basins for developing integrated water resources management practices.  

MENBO encouraged and supported the following twinning agreements:

1. Romanian basin Buzau-Ialomita, which is administrated by the entity Apele Romane, and  the Júcar River Basin Authority (Spain).

2. The Júcar-West Aegean Sea Project between the Bulgarian West Aegean Sea River Basin Directorate and the Júcar Basin Authority (Spain) focused on specific areas of interest based on Integrated Water Resources Management.

3. The Júcar-Amudarya-Sydarya Project between the Syrdarya Basin Organisation, the Amudarya Basin Organisation, ICWC (all Republic of Uzbekistan) and the Júcar Basin Authority (Spain) focused on specific areas of interest based on Integrated Water Resources Management.

Read more information about this project on the TWINBASIN website.