On 15-16 June 2023 Olga Zhovtonog (Director of NGO Primavera),  Tetiana Matiash and Vitalii Polishchuk (experts of NGO)  took part in the Meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee of the National Policy Dialogue on Integrated Water Resources Management in Ukraine and a Thematic Workshop on Nature-Based Solutions

The National Policy Dialogues on Integrated Water Resources Management (NPD) facilitate policy discussions where stakeholders meet to advance water sector reform. A variety of stakeholders participate in the meetings, such as national authorities and institutions, non-governmental organisations, the business community, parliamentary bodies, academia, international organisations. 

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE MEETING OF THE STEERING COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL POLICY DIALOGUE ON INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN UKRAINE:

to provide an update on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in Ukraine under the European Union – Ukraine Association Agreement,

to provide and update on recent developments in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM),

to discuss challenges in implementation of the IWRM WFD in Ukraine, and also link it with the implementation of other EU directives (e.g. UWWTD),

to provide a platform for coordination of donor activities in the water sector in Ukraine and to enhance the cooperation with international partner organisations,

to update on the progress of work on the Environmental Data component of the EU Programme, i.e. on water accounts, land use mapping, waste and air pollution data, access to data as well as international reporting, to discuss progress and next steps in implementing the EU4Environment – Water and Data Programme in Ukraine and to receive feedback from the national stakeholders.

THE WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES: 

To provide explanation (including criteria and standards), overview and benefits of different types of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) compared to other water management solutions in river basins

To exchange experience and views among Ukrainian stakeholders and development partners on: 

existing and potential NbS for river basin management in Ukraine

how existing NbS in the country have been developed and implemented. 

To enhance understanding of definition, benefits and challenges of NbS for Ukraine climate and biodiversity related targets and sustainable river basin management in terms of: further scaling up of the NbS in Ukraine, challenges to scaling up.  

To identify key priorities (e.g. types of NbS, regions, landscape) that can potentially be included in the “roadmap” to be developed under the EU4Environment Project.

NGO’s team prepared the presentation “CHALLENGES AND HIGHEST PRIORITIES FOR THE WATER POLICY OF UKRAINE: Security and Rebuilding Strategic tasks now and after the War“ and had a speech on  Thematic session 3: International technical and financial support to implementation and financing of the programme of measures of the RBMP (see attached Agenda and Presentation).The session helped to review current international technical and financial support to Ukraine, particularly on water management and sanitation, and focused on a dialogue with the international organizations in Ukraine.