Jordan Times
Tuesday, November 6, 2001
Jordan, Germany sign minutes of cooperation, aid for 2002-2003
AMMAN (JT) — Jordan and Germany on Monday signed the minutes of their meetings held in Amman on Oct. 30 and 31, to discuss cooperation and the aid package Germany is to give Jordan in 2002 and 2003.Ulrike Metzger, deputy head of the Middle East desk at the German ministry of economic cooperation signed the minutes on behalf of Germany while Abdul Razzaq Bani Hani, Ministry of Planning secretary general, signed it from the Jordanian side.
The two sides held several workshops to review the projects already in progress as well as projects they will cooperate in carrying out in the future, especially in the water and environment fields.
According to a German embassy statement, experts from the German ministry of cooperation, the Bank for Reconstruction and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation discussed the findings of a comprehensive evaluation of joint projects and programmes over the last decade. The partners developed on the basis of existing and future programmes of the Government of Jordan a strategy for the focal area of water and related environmental aspects for the coming five years.
The evaluation, carried out by independent consultants earlier this year, covered all major areas of Jordanian-German development cooperation, such as social infrastructure and poverty alleviation, resource management in rural areas, water and sanitation, institution building and environmental policy. The evaluation undertakes a comprehensive review of the results and experiences gained from past and ongoing projects. It also identifies avenues for enhancing Jordanian-German development co-operation's significance and effectiveness by further concentrating it on its focal area of water and environment.
Representatives of all the Jordanian and German ministries, government institutions and implementing agencies concerned with water issues (as well as members of civil society), a joint strategy for the water sector and related environmental aspects was discussed and finalised. The strategy aims at ensuring an integrated form of water resource management that is sustainable in economic, ecological and social terms, said the statement.
Key elements of the joint efforts in the water sector in the years ahead will be ways of ensuring a more efficient use of the scarce resource of water. These include the reduction of losses, expansion and rehabilitation of supply and sewage networks, greater use of treated wastewater and brackish water, the development of an appropriate legislative framework and efficient institutions, cost recovery, commercialisation of the utilities and the involvement of the private sector, as well as issues dealing with poverty alleviation, improving the situation of women and prospects for regional cooperation, the statement added.
The specifics of the strategy will be translated into an action plan for the water sector at the beginning of 2002.