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create inclusive fora for learning about critical issues of water-food resources and local
sustainable development.
The PRIMA program will elaborate and stimulate the adoption
of new policies for a better
governance of water, the progress of management systems and the achievement of water and
food security.
The projects will strengthen the capacity building of Mediterranean countries in many different
fields:
giving support to the local, national and international institution to find solutions to increase
food and water chain efficiency,
reducing wastes and losses;
involving the rural community in the discussion of the local development objectives;
launching“awareness campaigns” involving the civil society;
supporting a more inclusive participation in decision processes for farmers association,
water technology companies, SMEs in the agro-food sector.
Political stability.
In the future climatic change is going to play an important role in curtailing agricultural production
determining sudden oscillations in the price of foodstuff. In an economic situation marked by
increased social inequalities and growing unemployment, the food dependency increases the
exposure of many Arab countries to the price oscillations in the international market.
The pressure
on domestic bread price can play a role in triggering social unrest. Arab spring cannot be considered
a direct consequence of global food crisis occurred between 2008 and 2011 but initially riots for
bread, became a symbol of the social discontent and the need of a regime change.
In SEMCs climatic change is acting as a threat multiplier because in a global world where countries
tend to externalize their water and food demand by resorting to international markets, local hazards
may generate a global impact by interacting with different economic, social and political drivers of
instability. Increasing cooperation projects on research and innovation, can improve living condition
all around Mediterranean countries with many impacts in terms of political stability, living
conditions in the rural areas, job creation and reduction of migration flows.
Prima Program tries to
approach security not in the conventional perspective based on risks, but in a human perspective.
The attempt is to consider prosperity as strictly related to research and innovation, so the most
important role of this program is to empower the role of the scientific community in contributing
to economic, environmental and social development in the Mediterranean. Water is a matter of
conflict at different regional scale. A major efficiency in the management of scarce water resources
in the Mediterranean countries will reduce the conflict between economic sectors - agriculture
versus domestic and industrial use - and will contribute to reduce pollution and waste of natural
resources. In SEMCs Prima program could also try to reduce the competition over water and land at
the regional scale. In SEMCs, the need to meet the water and food requirements of fast-growing
populations has increased competition within international river basins and led several countries to
play a ‘hydro-hegemonic’ role at the expense of their co-riparian neighbors. An important hydro-
conflict area is the Tigris and Euphrates basin, involving Turkey as upstream country and Syria and
Iraq as downstream countries. In this basin, the geopolitical setting is going to be influenced by the
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political instability affecting the Middle East. The traditional competition between the co-riparian
countries is actually altered by the attempts of Islamic State to control the main dams on the two
rivers. This concentration of the fight between Islamic State and the contrasting forces on the
ground around the most important dams show the role of land and water in controlling the territory
and the population of the area. Furthemore, also in the case of political turmoil in Siria the climatic
hazards played a very important role as a “threaths multiplier”. Before the Syrian uprising that
began in 2011, the greater Fertile Crescent experienced the most severe drought in the instrumental
record. For Syria, a country marked by poor governance and unsustainable agricultural and
environmental policies, the drought had a catalytic effect, contributing to political unrest.
Millions of people across the Middle East and North Africa are facing drought, scarce drinking water
supplies, and poor sanitation due to civil wars and conflict. Meanwhile, resource constraints and
foreign military interventions risk more severe humanitarian disasters. Refugees of the civil
wars in
Syria and Yemen are struggling to secure clean water supplies. Two-thirds of Yemen’s population –
some 16 million people – is without clean drinking water and sanitation due to a simmering conflict
between the government and rebels from northern provinces, while water supplies are dwindling
at Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan.
Prima program will contribute to analyses the
hydro-politics in the Mediterranean region since water and food security are strategic issues that
will be affected and will affect the regional political equilibrium in a compelling and unpredictable
way.
Water as a driver of conflict can be transformed in a driver of cooperation throughout the
joint researches and technological transfers that Prima can enhance.
In Mediterranean country food security is strongly interlinked with water availability and
sustainable agriculture. The water–food nexus makes evident the importance of saving water and
food, cultivating agricultural products with lower water requirements and adopting a more
environmentally friendly vegetable-oriented diet. Production patterns need to be addressed
properly in order to feed populations and reduce their exposure to price fluctuations on the global
market. Due to the high percentage of population under or close to the poverty line and the high
share of family expenditure devoted to food, the price of basic foodstuff can influence the political
instability.
A shift in agricultural policy is essential to avoid social imbalances and political unrest. Furthermore,
the search for food security strongly affects the regional geopolitical equilibrium. In the
international river basins (Jordan, Tigris and Euphrates and Nile) the implementation of water
projects aiming to increase irrigated land is mining natural resources and is contributing to
deteriorate the political relations between co-riparian countries. In the last years the geopolitical
competition over land and water resources increased as a consequence of the global food crisis. The
export oriented agricultural model prevailing in many SEMCs reduced the self-sufficiency index for
cereals, creating a strong food dependency.
Importing food - and, thus, virtual water - was a mean for water scarce economies to escape from
their natural constraints. Furthermore, for many decades the low course of staple food in the
international markets allowed water scarce economies not to question the water and agricultural
policy. The global food crisis altered this equilibrium, making evident the dependency of virtual
water importers from virtual water exporters and reversed a long trend of reliance on the world
market for food security. This explains the upsurge of land deals. The countries involved in land