SWIM H2020 Support Mechanism

The SWIM-H2020 SM Project (Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Horizon 2020 Support Mechanism 2016-2019) funded by the European Union aims to contribute to reduced marine pollution and a sustainable use of scarce water resources in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia). The Project is the continuation and merging of two successful previous EU-funded service contracts, Horizon 2020 Capacity Building/Mediterranean Environment Programme (H2020 CB/MEP) (2009-2014) and the Sustainable Water Integrated Management Support Mechanism (SWIM SM) (2010-2015).

The SWIM-H2020 SM aims to:

• Provide tailored and targeted technical assistance at national level based on partners’ requests through an Expert Facility;
• Organize regional (or sub-regional) peer-to-peer seminars and webinars;
• Conduct on-site training courses and study tours
• Capitalize on the lens learnt, good practices and success stories;
• Support the Horizon 2020 Initiative’s governance mechanism and the work of the UfMS’s Water Experts Group.

In order to achieve:

• Positive changes triggered in the design and implementation of the relevant national institutional, policy and regulatory frameworks;
• Enhancement of partner countries’ capacity to promote investment and business opportunities for properly managing municipal waste, industrial emissions and waste water;
• Facilitation of access to finance for selected sustainable investment projects;
• Strengthening of regional coherence and cooperation in approaches to marine pollution prevention and control, and sustainable water management;
• Identification, testing and sharing of best practices and success stories;
• Use of research results in policy making – enhancement of more sustainable practices.

Context of the Project

The SWIM-Horizon 2020 SM will provide tailored and targeted support to authorities and other stakeholders of the Partner Countries in order to tackle the reduction of industrial emissions, municipal waste and urban wastewater to the Mediterranean Sea and ensure the sustainable use of water resources. The project will work in partnership with Mediterranean Hot Spots Investment Programme II (MeHSIP-II) of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Secretariat of the Union for Mediterranean (UfMS) to promote and facilitate sustainable investments in the water and sanitation services. It will also assist the countries to effectively implement their commitments, in particular the ones related to the Land Based Sources (LBS), the Hazardous Wastes and Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Protocols of the Barcelona Convention and the National Action Plans (NAPs), as well those linked to the draft Strategy for Water in the Mediterranean of the UfMS and the Water Strategy in the Western Mediterranean (5+5). Furthermore, the project will synergise with and utilise lessons learned from the SWIM Demo Projects. Through its implementation it will promote participatory processes including inter-ministerial, inter-sectorial and multi-stakeholder approaches in order to minimise the silo effect and facilitate a sustainable development at country level and create the enabling conditions to significantly speed the scale-up national-level best practices to regional context.

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MORE INFO: 

Partner countries: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia Participation of Albania, Bosnia& Herzegovina, Mauritania, Montenegro and Turkey in regional activities can be considered.

Contracting Authority: Directorate-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR)

Duration: 39 months  |  Commencement Date: 1st February 2016

You can find more about SWIM H2020 SM on Facebook & Linkedin and on the website

Download the leaflet (english or arabic) for more information