MEDSTAT II Environment Sector / UNESCWA / UNSD Joint Sub-regional Training Session on the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water (SEEAW)

The MEDSTAT II Environment sector is organizing a sub-regional training session on the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water (SEEAW), jointly with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the UN Statistics Division (UNSD).
 
The training course, taking place in Jordan from March 10-13, aims at providing a sound knowledge on the compilation and practical and operational use of the SEEAW. It will draw on experiences from around the world, while participants are encouraged to bring data so that work on real water accounts can be done.
 
Water accounting provides a robust framework for producing and integrating hydrological and economic information on water for managers and decision-makers.
 
The meeting will bring together experts (water statisticians, water managers and/or accountant) from National Statistical Offices, Ministries of Environment and Water Authorities of the Mediterranean Partners countries and ESCWA member countries.
 
The course will address the following topics:

    * Compilation and use of the System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting for Water Resources (SEEAW) for integrated water resources management (IWRM);
    * Functions and limitations of water accounting ;
    * Practical and operational process of SEEAW;
    * Institutional framework that affects/supports the application of SEEAW;
    * Examples that apply SEEAW.

The working languages are English and Arabic. Interpretation will be available for both.
 
An Information Note with all the background and practical information, the purpose of the training course as well as links is available.

Participants are kindly asked to prepare a short paper presenting their country situation in terms of water management, water statistics (data sources, availability) and water accounting (if relevant) and bring national data to the training session so that the group sessions can work with real data sets and problems, rather than data that are fictitious or from countries that already completed water accounts. Data may be drawn from information published by National Statistics Offices, Water Departments, and Environment Departments, Agricultural Departments or other government sources. If possible data should be in the form of spreadsheets (e.g. Excel) and supplied in advance of the meeting. An Excel sheet sample will be send by email later.

Supporting paper or country paper not exceeding 8 pages in length should be submit in MS Word format (via e-mail) to Ms Cécile Roddier-Quefelec and Ms Wafa Aboul Hosn by February 6, 2008.

PowerPoint and PDF presentations will be available for download at the CIRCA MEDSTAT II domain and ESCWA/Statistics Division website and the project website.