The MedPartnership successfully presents achievements in 3rd Steering Committee meeting and further funds are mobilized to achieve replication of good practices

The Third Steering Committee Meeting of the MedPartnership was held on 15-17 May 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey, hosted by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization of Turkey and with representatives from Algeria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, Lebanon, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestinian Authority and Tunisia. The EC, Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), the French Development Agency, UNEP, the WB, FAO, UNIDO, several regional activity centers of MAP, and non-governmental organisations including WWF, GWP-Med and MIO-ECSDE also participated. 

The MedPartnership in its third year is now delivering successfully in terms of its policy, management and capacity building activities and all 79 demonstrations are in full implementation thanks to the efforts all 11 executing partners and the twelve countries participating countries. Two such highlights from the 2011 Annual Report, include the support to the government of Libya which then established a new MPA (Al-Ghazala coastal lagoon and Elba island) in 2011, and the successful integration of environmentally sound technology (TEST-Med) in 48 small and medium industries participating in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt.

In addition a new project, also to be coordinated as part of the MedPartnership “Integration of climatic variability and change into national strategies to implement the ICZM Protocol in the Mediterranean” was endorsed by the GEF in January 2012, and held on the 17th its first meeting to launch the Inception Phase of the project. 

Overall the MedPartnership is successfully on its way to achieve its objectives, and in addition is expanding thanks to the new GEF funds to integrate climate variability, and also thanks to the engagement and commitment of the EC, significant additional resources are expected to be secured to further expand the work of TEST-Med and the work on the effective management and creation of marine protected areas in the Mediterranean.