Under the patronage of H.E. Lebanese Minister of Environment Dr Naser Yassin, The Royal Scientific Society in Jordan in partnership with the Municipality of As Semkanieh, Municipality of Jdaidet El Chouf and Lebanon Eco Movement conducted a regional meeting under the title “Road to Sustainable Finance” for Municipalities within the framework of GIZ “Nexus Regional Dialogue Programme (NRD)” and the “MENA Region Initiative as a Model of Nexus and Renewable Technologies (MINARET) II Project.
The meeting brought together various local, regional, and international funding agencies, energy and nexus experts, regional municipalities, NGOs, government ministries and entities, UN organizations, private sector, financial institutions, academia and research institutions from Lebanon, Tunisia and Jordan.
Objectives of the meeting:
- Support water, energy, and food projects that aim to limit the effects of climate change and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, in order to ensure better access to green financial resources in the Middle East and North Africa region.
- Strengthen the partnership for the sustainable management of natural resources between local authorities and the public and private sectors.
- Work on integrating the methodology of the interdependence between water, energy and food in the Arab region within national policies to increase societal resilience and reduce the risks of climate change.
- Provide an opportunity for municipalities to get acquainted with the funding agencies and donor organizations, and expand ways of cooperation with the concerned municipalities to attract investments in the fields of environment, energy, water and climate.
The regional meeting also fed into the process of establishing a cooperative culture within the municipalities of the region that will further support in applying the aforementioned nexus-thinking approach, business and financing models and channels.
MINARET II initiative is implemented in the context of the Nexus Regional Dialogues Programme, which is implemented by RSS on behalf of GIZ, and co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
