{"id":3788,"date":"2015-12-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/news\/a-new-impetus-for-enhancing-cooperation-for-the-management-of-the-drin-basin\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T15:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:37:13","slug":"a-new-impetus-for-enhancing-cooperation-for-the-management-of-the-drin-basin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/news\/a-new-impetus-for-enhancing-cooperation-for-the-management-of-the-drin-basin\/","title":{"rendered":"A new Impetus for Enhancing Cooperation for the Management of the Drin Basin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>More than 100 representatives of Drin Riparians\u2019 government institutions, national and local stakeholders as well as of intergovernmental, international and regional organizations supporting activities in the Drin River Basin exchanged views on management priorities and the Drin institutional process the Project will support. The ultimate goal is a shift of mentality from a potentially conflicting sharing of waters among Riparians to a sharing of benefits among stakeholders.<\/p>\n<p>With a budget of $5.5 million for the beneficiary Drin Riparians &#8211; Albania, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>[1]<\/strong><\/span> and Montenegro, over the next four years, the Project becomes the pivotal action in the Drin River Basin, with the aim to <em><strong>\u201cpromote joint management of the shared water resources of the transboundary Drin River Basin, including coordination mechanisms among the various sub-basin joint commissions and committees<\/strong><\/em> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>[2]<\/strong><\/span>\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/04\/580-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"394\" height=\"263\"><\/p>\n<p>The GEF Drin Project comes at a critical point, as the vehicle to financially support and facilitate the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding for the management of the Drin Basin <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>[3]<\/strong><\/span><strong> <\/strong>(Drin MoU) that was agreed in Tirana in November 2011, in line with the existing agreements at national and transboundary level. Aligned in content, aims and objectives with the Drin MoU, the Project will consistently contribute to the operationalization of the institutional structure established and enhance scientific knowledge in the Basin towards informed decision-making for transboundary management, based on a set of commonly agreed measures and a systematic involvement of users, civil society and other stakeholders.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe serious issues faced in the Drin River Basin cannot be addressed by a single country. There is an imperative need that all countries sharing the watershed cooperate to provide transboundary solutions\u201d<\/em>, stressed <strong>Mr. Edmond Panariti<\/strong>, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Water Administration, who congratulated all actors involved in the Project for their engaged work, and raised his Ministry\u2019s commitment to actively participate in this Project, to make it succeed. <em>\u201cThis Project assists Riparians in joining forces to increase capacity in the region, taking steps to guarantee the continuity and sustainability of its results\u201d<\/em>, he concluded.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/04\/642-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"394\" height=\"263\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mr. Ferid Agani<\/strong>, Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning, expressed his satisfaction that the launch of this Project, as a major step towards meeting the Drin MoU objective on \u201cPromoting joint action for the coordinated integrated management of the shared water resources in the Drin basin\u201d, comes at a moment of significant developments in the Kosovo water sector. <em>\u201cDespite modest progress in legislative and institutional terms, we are aware that the main challenge remains the financing of water projects, with a cost of about 1.25 billion Euros, including projects on water supply, wastewater treatment and protection of water resources\u201d<\/em>, he mentioned, while stressing also the need to improve coordination among various organizations, bringing together all relevant stakeholders in water sector.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mr. Stevo Temelkovski<\/strong>, Deputy Minister of Environment and Physical Planning, highlighted the strong involvement of his Ministry in all stages of the development of the cooperation process for the Drin River Basin management, culminating with the GEF Drin Project implementation phase. <em>\u201cI would like to express our clear political will towards basin mutual understanding in water management as a precondition for cooperation towards sustainable development\u201d<\/em>, he stressed, while expressing his belief that Drin Basin can become an example of&nbsp; transboundary cooperation, and his hope that different demonstration projects will support national management plans at basin level towards a strengthened Integrated River Basin Management.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/04\/646-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"394\" height=\"263\"><\/p>\n<p>The GEF Drin Project is implemented by the <strong>United Nations Development   Programme (UNDP)<\/strong> and executed by the <strong>Global Water Partnership (GWP)<\/strong> through <strong>GWP Mediterranean (GWP-Med)<\/strong>, in cooperation with the <strong>United   Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Inception Meeting of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) supported  project \u201cEnabling Transboundary Cooperation and Integrated Water  Resources Management in the extended Drin River Basin\u201d took place in  Tirana, on 16 December 2015, at the presence of Mr. Edmond Panariti,  Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Water Administration, Mr.  Ferid Agani, Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning, as well as  Mr. Stevo Temelkovski, Deputy Minister of Environment and Physical  Planning.<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,4],"tags":[25,36],"class_list":["post-3788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","category-news","tag-mediterranean","tag-transboundary"],"acf":[],"spectra_custom_meta":{"_sidebar_content":["field_69d4d421acab1"],"sidebar_content":["<div><div><article class=\"c-module\">\n        <div class=\"c-module__header\">\n            <h1 class=\"c-module__heading\">Notes<\/h1>\n        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"c-module__content c-module__content--padded\">\n        <div class=\"s-cms-module-content\">\n            \n  <ol>\n    <li>\n      <strong>References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999).<\/strong>\n    <\/li>\n    <li>\n      <strong>Prespa Park Coordination Committee, Lake Ohrid Watershed Committee, Skadar\/Shkoder Lake Management Commission.<\/strong>\n    <\/li>\n    <li>\n      <strong>The Drin MoU itself, as the product of the Drin Dialogue Process (2009-2011) to tackle the absence until then of coordinated action at the Drin Basin level, provides the political framework for, and defines the context of cooperation among the Drin Riparians. It aims at the attainment of its Strategic Shared Vision to <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>\u201cpromote joint action for the coordinated, integrated management of the shared water resources in the Drin Basin, as a means to safeguard and restore, to the extent possible, the ecosystems and the services they provide, and promote sustainable development across the Drin Basin\u201d<\/em><\/span><em>.<\/em><\/strong>\n    <\/li>\n  <\/ol>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/article><\/div><div><article class=\"c-module\">\n        <div class=\"c-module__header\">\n            <h1 class=\"c-module__heading\">Additional Information<\/h1>\n        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"c-module__content c-module__content--padded\">\n        <div class=\"s-cms-module-content\">\n            \n  <p>\n    <strong>Please, find more more information on<strong> the Drin River Basin, the Drin Coordinated  Action and the GEF Drin Project <\/strong><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.drincorda.org\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a><\/strong>. <\/strong>\n  <\/p>\n  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n  <p>\n    <strong>For more information about the project partners please visit the respective websites: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thegef.org\" target=\"_blank\">Global Environment Facility<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.undp.org\" target=\"_blank\">United Nations Development Programme,<\/a><\/strong>\n  <\/p>\n  <p>\n    <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gwpmed.org\" target=\"_blank\">\n      <strong>Global Water Partnership \u2013 Mediterranean, <\/strong>\n    <\/a>\n    <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unece.org\" target=\"_blank\">\n      <strong>United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.<\/strong>\n    <\/a>\n  <\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/article><\/div><\/div>"],"_old_url":["field_69d4d472acab2"],"old_url":["https:\/\/www.gwp.org\/en\/GWP-Mediterranean\/WE-ACT\/News-List-Page\/A-new-Impetus-for-Enhancing-Cooperation-for-the-Management-of-the-Drin-Basin\/"],"_last_date":["field_69d4d498acab3"],"last_date":["12\/22\/2015"],"_event_start":["field_69d4d4c4acab4"],"event_start":[""],"_event_end":["field_69d4d4dcacab5"],"event_end":[""],"_scrape_id":["field_69d4d4ebacab6"],"scrape_id":["01-GWP-English"],"_wp_page_template":["default"],"_thumbnail_id":["6246"],"_edit_last":["1"],"_uag_page_assets":["a:9:{s:3:\"css\";s:0:\"\";s:2:\"js\";s:0:\"\";s:18:\"current_block_list\";a:14:{i:0;s:13:\"core\/freeform\";i:1;s:11:\"core\/search\";i:2;s:10:\"core\/group\";i:3;s:12:\"core\/heading\";i:4;s:20:\"core\/latest-comments\";i:5;s:9:\"core\/list\";i:6;s:14:\"core\/list-item\";i:7;s:19:\"rank-math\/toc-block\";i:8;s:14:\"core\/accordion\";i:9;s:19:\"core\/accordion-item\";i:10;s:22:\"core\/accordion-heading\";i:11;s:20:\"core\/accordion-panel\";i:12;s:14:\"core\/paragraph\";i:13;s:10:\"core\/image\";}s:8:\"uag_flag\";b:0;s:11:\"uag_version\";s:10:\"1779116804\";s:6:\"gfonts\";a:0:{}s:10:\"gfonts_url\";s:0:\"\";s:12:\"gfonts_files\";a:0:{}s:14:\"uag_faq_layout\";b:0;}"]},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/04\/616.jpg",394,263,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/04\/616-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/04\/616-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/04\/616.jpg",394,263,false],"large":["https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/04\/616.jpg",394,263,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/04\/616.jpg",394,263,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/04\/616.jpg",394,263,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"satsiriwinberg@gmail.com","author_link":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/author\/satsiriwinberggmail-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The Inception Meeting of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) supported project \u201cEnabling Transboundary Cooperation and Integrated Water Resources Management in the extended Drin River Basin\u201d took place in Tirana, on 16 December 2015, at the presence of Mr. Edmond Panariti, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Water Administration, Mr. Ferid Agani, Minister of Environment and&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3788"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5973,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3788\/revisions\/5973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}